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BR  115  .P7  C86  1915 
Cunningham,  William,  1849- 

1919. 
Christianity  and  politics 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 


CHRISTIANITY  AND 


POLITICS 


( 


BY 


WILLIAM  CUNNINGHAM,  D.D.,  F.B.A. 

ARCHDEACON  OF  ELY 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

1915 


COPYRIGHT,   I915,   BY  WILLIAM  CUNNINGHAM 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 

Published  November  iqis 


PREFACE 

The  bearing  of  Christian  teaching  on  the  life 
of  the  community  is  a  matter  of  great  interest 
from  many  points  of  view.  In  lectures  at  the 
London  School  of  Economics  in  1913  I  endeav- 
oured to  deal  with  the  relations  of  Christianity 
and  Economic  Science,  reserving  for  the  time  the 
practical  questions  as  to  political  duty:  this  was 
the  subject  of  the  course  of  Lowell  Lectures  which 
I  had  the  honour  of  delivering  in  the  autumn  of 
1914.  There  has  been  the  greatest  difference  of 
opinion  between  different  bodies  of  Christians  as 
to  the  mode  of  bringing  Christianity  to  bear  on  po- 
litical life,  and  the  differences  are  so  fundamental 
that  it  is  worth  while  to  examine  them  in  turn, 
and  see  how  far  each  opinion  has  justified  itself 
as  a  matter  of  practical  experience.  The  more  we 
are  aware  of  the  danger  of  giving  exaggerated 
importance  to  any  half  truth,  the  better  prospect 
there  will  be  of  finding  common  ground,  on  which 
all  can  work  together  without  any  sacrifice  of 
principle.  The  Lowell  Lectures,  as  originally 
written,  were  chiefly  concerned  with  the  internal 
government  of  a  community;  but  the  war  has 
given  importance  to  all  questions  of  international 


PREFACE , 

relations;  and  in  revising  the  lectures  for  publica- 
tion I  have  endeavoured  to  take  account  of 
national  life  in  all  its  aspects.  The  appendix,  on 
the  Attitude  of  the  Church  towards  War,  is  part 
of  a  memorandum  written  at  the  request  of  a 
Committee  of  the  Lower  House  of  Convocation 
of  the  Province  of  Canterbury,  which  had  been 
appointed  to  consider  the  subject  of  the  Church 
and  War. 

W.  C. 

Teinitt  College,  Cambridge, 
80  July,  1915. 


CONTENTS 


Introduction * 

War  as  an  Anachronism. 
Appeal  to  Christianity. 
Disappointed  Expectations. 
Maxims  for  Society. 
Personal  Sense  of  Duty. 

I.  Christendom  and  the  Reformation  .      .      8 

s  I.  The  Papacy. 

Spiritual  and  Civil  Authority. 
The  Secularising  of  Papal  Power. 
The  Counter-Reformation. 

II.  External  Spiritual  Authority. 
Bishop  Ketteler  and  Social  Questions. 
Papal  Claims. 
Diminishing  Influence. 
Failure  to  give  Definite  Guidance. 

ni.  The    Aloofness    of   Anglo-Saxon  Peo- 
ples. 
Papal  Enunciation  of  Truisms. 
Suspicion  of  Clerical  Interference. 
Loss  to  Christian  Studies. 

II.  Church  and  State  in  England  ...    30 

I.  National  Life. 

The  Church  as  National. 
The  Appeal  to  the  Bible. 
Loyalty  to  the  Crown. 
Sense  of  Mission. 
The  Gentry  and  the  Council. 

Vll 


CONTENTS 

II.  The  Administration   of  a  Christian 
Realm. 

Ecclesiastical  and  Civil  Authorities. 

The  Relief  of  the  Poor. 

The  Enforcement  of  Fish  Diet. 

Objection  to  Usury. 

Attacks  on  the  Stuart  Administration. 

in.  The  Right  to  Coerce. 

Coercing  People  for  the  Common  Good. 
A  Common  Order  in  Worship. 
Economic  Progress. 
The  Art  of  Leadership. 

III.  Presbyterianism  and  the  Supremacy  op 

Scripture 63 

I.  The  Scriptural  Model  for  a  Polity. 

Reaction  from  the  Synagogue  of  Satan. 

A  Godly  Nation. 

The  Magistrates  and  Force. 

Freedom  for  Capital. 

The  Spiritual  Independence  of  Ministers. 

n.  Presbyterian  Theocracy. 

A  Christian  Community. 

Education  and  Poor-Relief. 

Industrial  Requirements  and  Prudential  Virtues. 

Capital  and  the  New  Slavery. 

III.  The  Danger  of  Misusing  Scripture. 

The  Bible  and  Principles  for  a  Polity. 
Economic  Laws. 
Society  and  Individuals. 

IV.  Independents   and   the   Supremacy   op 

Conscience 92 

I.  Personal    Conviction     and     Gathered 
Churches. 
Gathered  Churches. 
The  Duties  of  the  Community. 
Attack  upon  the  Parochial  System. 

•  •  • 

vm 


CONTENTS 

II.  Administrative  Duties  and  the  Society 
OF  Friends. 
OflBcial  Duty. 
Civil  Rights. 
Public  Responsibilities. 

in.  Christian  Associations. 

Withdrawal  to  the  New  World. 

External  Relations  and  Internal  Regulation. 

The  Two  Spheres. 

IV.  Unassimilated  Elements  in  English  So- 
ciety. 

The  Clarendon  Code. 

The  Assertion  of  Personal  Rights. 

The  Elimination  of  Religion  from  Politics. 

V.  The  Grounds  of  Civil  Obedience. 
The  Duty  of  Civil  Obedience. 
Refraining  from  Active  Obedience. 
The  Appeal  to  Force. 
Duty  to  the  Community  and  to  God. 

V.  Religion  and  Public  Spirit  .      .      .      .127 

I.  Self-Discipline  and  Growth. 

Personal  Religious  Life. 

Services  and  Societies. 

John  Wesley  and  Methodism. 

II.  The  Duties  of  the  Community. 
Pulpit  Exhortations. 
National  Mission  and  National  Duty. 
Self-interest  and  Public  Spirit. 
Trading  Companies,  and  Planters. 
Duty  to  the  Poor  and  to  Dependents. 
Hospitals  and  the  Humane  Society. 
The  Anti-Slavery  Movement. 

in.  The  Prosperity  of  the  Community. 

Improving  Landlords  and  Enterprising  Capi- 
talists. 

Individual  Loss  and  the  Progress  of  the  Com- 
munity 

ix 


CONTENTS 

VI.    HUMANITARIANISM  AND  COERCION       ,  ~    .   167 

I.  The  Abandonment  of  Laissez-faire. 

Adam  Smith. 

State  Support  of  Philanthropic  EfiForts. 

Public  Health. 

The  Com  Laws. 

n.  Coercion  and  Duties  of  Other  People. 
Public  Opinion. 
Public  Benefits  and  Ideal  Justice. 

in.  Reliance  on  State  Interference. 
Desire  for  Political  Power. 
Decline  of  Personal  Responsibility. 
Coercion  of  Other  Nations. 
Humanitarianism  and  War. 

IV.  Political  Christianity. 

The  Church  as  the  Handmaid  of  Politicians.     , 

Fanaticism. 

The  Special  Work  of  Christianity. 

VIL  Class  Interests  and  National  Inter- 
ests         200 

I.  Substitutes  for  the  Sense  of  Duty. 
Co-operative  Societies,  and  Copartnership. 
Friendly  Societies  and  Trade  Unions. 

II.  Inadequacy  of  Class  Interests. 

Beneficial  Effects. 
Possibilities  of  Conflict. 

III.  National  Interests. 
The  Evils  of  War. 
The  Insecurity  of  Peace. 
Sordid  Polities. 

VIII.  Christian  Duty  in  a  Democracy  .      .  219 

I.  Modern  Perplexities. 
Indifference  to  Religion. 
Social  Unrest. 
Spiritual  Influence. 
Personal  Responsibility  to  God. 


CONTENTS 

II.  Duties  as  a  Citizen. 

Party  Government. 
Disparaging  Politics. 
y  Motive  Force  for  doing  Duties  to  the  Commu- 

nity. 
Duty  as  to  Investments. 

III.  Duties  of  Private  Life. 

The  Employer  of  Labour. 
Public  Companies. 

IV.  Christian  Organisation. 

Personal  Sense  of  Duty. 
Intellectual  Error. 
Inspiring  Examples. 
Local  Organisation. 

Appendix 247 

The  Attitude  of  the  Church  towards 
War. 

^   I.  The  Acceptance  of  War  as  Inevitable 
IN  AN  Evil  World. 
The  Sub-Apostolic  Age. 
Christians  and  Military  Discipline. 
St.  Augustine  and  Just  Wars. 

n.  The  Christian  Polity  and  the  Conse- 
cration OF  War. 

The  Extension  of  Christendom  by  Force. 

The  MiUtary  Orders. 

Private  War  and  the  Peace  of  God. 

Wars  of  Religion. 

The  Protest  of  Anabaptists  and  Friends. 

Sanctified  Common  Sense. 

Index  .  "^ 9,^^ 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

INTRODUCTION 

The  European  War  has  caused  an  extraordi- 
nary strain  on  the  resources  of  the  nations  en- 
gaged in  it.  Each  combatant  is  trying  to  put  out 
its  full  strength  and  to  organise  the  energies  of 
labour  and  the  wealth  of  capitalists  with  a  view  to 
military  operations;  each  is  striving  to  the  utmost 
to  obtain  success.  Such  a  trial  of  strength  must 
have  far-reaching  results;  war  is  an  ordeal  which 
not  only  strains  material  resources,  but  tests  the 
habits  of  thought  and  accepted  axioms  of  political 
life.  Till  July  of  last  year  there  was  a  general  be- 
lief in  England  and  America  that  war  had  become 
an  anachronism;  that,  though  it  might  survive 
among  half-civilised  and  decadent  peoples,  it 
could  no  longer  occur  amongst  the  most  highly 
developed  nations.  It  seemed  impossible  that 
there  should  be  such  an  outrage  on  civilisation. 
On  the  one  side,  humanitarian  sentiment  was 
likely  to  prevent  an  outbreak  of  war,  with  all  the 
misery  it  entails;  on  the  other,  the  interests  of  the 
nations  of  the  world  were  so  interdependent  that 
it  seemed  unlikely  that  any  could  gain  by  means 
of  war.   But  events  have  proved  that  the  hopes 

1 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

which  were  so  generally  entertained  were  base- 
less; a  nation,  distinguished  for  scientific  culture 
and  for  effective  organisation,  has  forced  on  a  war, 
and  horrors  which  were  looked  upon  as  a  thing  of 
the  past  have  been  let  loose  on  a  larger  scale  than 
ever  before.  Pacificism,  which  professed  to  be  the 
last  result  of  scientific  sociology,  has  been  dis- 
credited as  impracticable  in  Europe,  since  events 
have  proved  the  ineffectiveness  of  humanitarian 
sentiment  and  prudential  calculation,  to  prevent 
an  appeal  to  arms. 

During  the  last  year  there  has  also  been  fresh 
recognition  of  religion  as  a  force  in  political  life; 
for  a  century  and  more  there  had  been  a  tendency 
to  wave  it  aside  and  discard  it  as  no  longer  a 
matter  of  public  concern.  The  persistence  of  the 
philanthropists  was  not  indeed  wholly  forgotten, 
and  Christianity  was  expected  to  interfere  with 
the  internal  affairs  of  the  nation,  and  to  rouse 
the  national  conscience  on  such  questions  as  the 
sweating  of  labour  and  the  improvement  of  hous- 
ing. Apart,  however,  from  social  reform,  religion 
seemed  to  many  men  to  be  a  matter  of  private 
concern,  and  no  one  regarded  it  as  entering  di- 
rectly into  the  field  of  international  politics. 
With  the  stress  and  anxiety  of  war  all  this  is 
changed,  and  Christianity  has  taken  its  rightful 

2 


INTRODUCTION 

place.  The  depth  and  fervour  of  religion  in  Russia 
has  been  a  revelation  to  the  Western  world.  The 
Kaiser  has  appealed  to  the  faith  of  his  people  that 
God  will  give  victory  to  the  Germans,  and  render 
Teutonic  ideas  triumphant  throughout  the  world; 
while  English  statesmen  call  on  the  Church  to  use 
her  influence  and  support  them  in  a  sacred  cause. 
The  present  war  has  forced  men  to  realise,  as  they 
were  ceasing  to  do,  that  Christianity  has  an  im- 
portant part  to  play  in  shaping  the  destinies  and 
maintaining  the  influence  of  a  nation. 

Christianity,  when  thus  appealed  to,  speaks 
with  an  uncertain  sound;  different  ideals  are  cher- 
ished and  different  opinions  are  put  forth  as  to  the 
attitude  which  is  right  for  the  Christian  man  in 
regard  to  war.  Religion  may  be  the  strongest  in- 
centive to  courage  in  battle,  as  it  was  in  Old  Tes- 
tament times,  and  in  the  tide  of  conquest  by  which 
Mohammedanism  was  spread  in  the  East  and 
West.  Their  religion  was  the  inspiration  for  the 
struggle  of  the  Huguenots  in  France,  and  the 
Ironsides  in  England;  but  it  seems  to  have  in- 
creased the  bitterness  of  parties  and  to  have 
added  fuel  to  the  flames  of  political  passion.  Their 
common  Christianity  did  not  prevent  the  out- 
break of  war  between  European  nations;  yet  this 
is  inconsistent  with  the  conception  of  Christianity 
as  first  preached  and  as  now  accepted. 

3 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

Many  who  feel  little  need  of  a  religion  in  their 
own  lives  approve  of  the  ideal  of  society  which 
Christianity  sets  forth.  It  promises  the  advent  of 
a  Prince  of  Peace,  and  holds  out  the  hope  of  a 
time  when  war  shall  be  no  more.  Those  who  are 
enamoured  of  this  prospect  for  the  world  at  large 
are  disappointed  that  the  expectations  which 
Christianity  has  raised  have  not  been  fulfilled. 
Its  failure  to  maintain  peace  at  the  present  time 
seems  to  them  to  discredit  religion  as  unpractical, 
and  its  teaching  as  unfitted  for  the  present  world. 
But  this  raises  the  question  whether  the  failure  is 
due  to  Christianity  itself,  or  to  mistaken  methods 
of  pursuing  the  Christian  aim.  An  inquiry  as 
to  the  method  by  which  Christianity  is  likely  to 
work  most  effectively,  as  a  power  for  regenerating 
human  society,  is  not  only  interesting  but  fruitful. 
Forgotten  controversies  come  to  have  a  new 
meaning,  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  men 
who  took  part  in  them  were  making  different  ex- 
periments as  to  the  method  of  realising  the  Chris- 
tian aim  in  this  world.  In  the  seventeenth  century 
and  subsequently  one  experiment  was  tried  after 
another;  and  various  bodies  attempted  to  found  a 
Christian  polity  that  should  be  in  complete  ac- 
cordance with  the  will  of  God.  We  can  examine 
these  polities  in  turn,  and  see  how  far  the  basis  on 
which  each  rested  was  really  sound.  Some  relied 

4 


INTRODUCTION 

on  the  positive  guidance  of  a  living  authority;  ^ 
some  treated  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testament  as  an  ultimate  standard;^  while  others 
insisted  that  the  individual  conscience  must  be 
supreme.^  We  can  note  how  the  structures,  which 
were  built  on  one  or  other  of  these  foundations, 
have  been  arraigned  at  the  bar  of  history,  and  how 
defects  or  exaggerations  have  been  exposed.  This 
enquiry  is  not  idle,  if  we  are  prepared  to  learn  by 
the  experience  of  the  past.  Beacons,  which  warn 
us  what  to  avoid,  may  give  us  important  guidance 
as  to  the  course  we  ought  to  pursue. 

Christianity  still  maintains  a  claim  to  mould 
personal  life  and  national  life;  but  religion  would 
do  well  to  abandon  the  pretension  to  lay  down 
principles  in  a  form  in  which  they  are  directly 
applicable  to  the  circumstances  of  any  commu- 
nity, at  the  precise  stage  of  development  which  it 
has  reached.  In  the  modern  world  there  is  prog- 
ress and  growth;  and  no  maxims  can  be  formu- 
lated which  apply  to  every  age  alike.  The  laws  of 
Political  Economy  are  ultimately  based  on  experi- 
ence, and  hold  good  for  long  periods;  there  is  need 
to  take  them  into  full  account,  but  none  of  them 
is  to  be  treated  as  valid  for  all  time.  One  sys- 
tem of  Political  Economy  after  another  has  been 
superseded,  and  none  has  attained  finality.   Our 

1  Chapter  I.  ^  Chapter  III.  ^  Chapter  IV. 

5 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

religion  fails  to  live  up  to  its  true  character  if  it 
attempts  to  enunciate  maxims  which  give  direct 
guidance  to  political  communities.  For  "Chris- 
*'tianity  is  the  Eternal  Religion  which  can  never 
"become  obsolete.  If  it  sets  itself  to  determine 
"the  temporary  and  the  local,  the  justice  of  this 
"tax,  or  the  exact  wrongs  of  that  conventional 
"maxim  it  would  soon  become  obsolete,  —  it 
"would  be  the  religion  of  one  century,  not  of  all."^ 
It  is  to  the  personal  heart  and  conscience  that  the 
teaching  of  Christ  makes  its  primary  appeal;  the 
Christian  man  is  taught  to  aim  at  so  passing 
through  things  temporal  that  he  shall  not  lose  the 
things  eternal. 

The  problems  of  modern  life  are  complex,  and 
the  misery  of  human  beings  in  the  most  ad- 
vanced communities  is  appalling.  It  is  therefore 
right  that  we  should  try  to  learn  from  past  experi- 
ence. Christian  effort  is  wasted  when  it  is  frit- 
tered away  in  every  direction,  instead  of  being 
concentrated  on  the  field  in  which  it  can  work 
most  effectively.  Christianity  has  a  unique  power 
for  dealing  with  the  heart  and  conscience  of  the 
individual  man,  and  it  will  do  well  to  exercise  this 
power  to  the  full,  as  the  best  means  of  bringing  its 
influence  to  bear,  indirectly  but  not  the  less  really, 

^  F.  W.  Robertson,  Sermons  (2d  Series),  ii,  7. 

6 


INTRODUCTION 

on  Society  as  a  whole.  There  is  hope  that  the  part 
which  rehgion  has  to  play  in  political  life  may  be 
more  effective  than  ever,  if  Christian  men  can 
learn  from  their  own  past  failures,  and  not  only 
awaken  to  a  keener  sense  of  personal  duty,  but 
also  keep  an  open  mind  to  the  actual  conditions  in 
which  they  live.  Humanitarian  sentiment  is  a 
power  for  good,  though  it  cannot  create  a  new 
earth.  1  Class  Interest  and  National  Interest  are 
notable  forces,  though  they  are  mischievous  if 
they  are  allowed  to  operate  blindly. 2  No  exclusive 
Christian  principle  of  action  in  social  affairs  is  to 
be  advocated  as  a  substitute  for  the  play  of  hu- 
man activities.  Divine  power  can  so  master  them 
as  to  give  each  its  place,  and  bring  them  all  to  co- 
operate for  the  common  weal.  If  the  good  and  the 
evil  elements  in  the  social  forces  of  the  day  are 
recognised.  Christians  need  no  longer  treat  them 
as  antagonists,  but  welcome  them  as  possible 
allies.  "He  that  is  not  against  us  is  on  our  part." 

1  Chapter  VI.  2  Chapter  VII. 


I 

CHRISTENDOM  AND  THE  REFORMATION 
I.   THE   PAPACY 

Throughout  the  whole  of  Western  Christen- 
dom there  had  been  a  general  agreement,  during 
the  Middle  Ages,  that  the  Papacy  was  the  chan- 
nel by  which  the  Divine  Will  for  all  conditions  of 
human  life  was  authoritatively  made  known;  and 
also  that  it  was  the  organ  by  which  Christian  duty 
could  be  enforced,  either  by  the  spiritual  censures 
or  through  the  co-operation  of  Christian  princes. 
Generations  of  men  grew  up  in  a  society  which 
was  permeated  by  these  views  and  accepted  them 
without  serious  question.  Hildebrand  succeeded 
in  maintaining  the  supremacy  of  the  spiritual 
power,  while  its  independence  of  secular  authori- 
ties appears  to  be  guaranteed  by  the  possession  of 
the  States  of  the  Church;  and  this  view  has  never 
been  abandoned.  It  is  still  claimed  that  the  tem- 
poral power  "was  conferred  many  centuries  ago 
by  Divine  Providence  on  the  Bishop  of  Rome 
that  he  might  without  let  or  hindrance  use  the 
"authority  conferred  by  Christ  for  the  eternal 

8 


Si 

it 


CHRISTENDOM  AND  THE  REFORMATION 

"welfare  of  the  Nations."  ^  However  imperfectly 
this  might  be  realised  in  actual  life,  there  was  at 
least  a  general  recognition  of  one  harmonious 
system  throughout  Christendom  so  long  as  one 
common  authority  on  moral  and  social  duty 
was  generally  accepted.  "This  Apostolic  Chair  it 
"was  that  gathered  and  held  together  the  crum- 
"bling  remains  of  the  old  order  of  things;  this  was 
"the  kindly  light  by  whose  help  the  culture  of 
"Christian  times  shone  far  and  wide;  this  was  an 
"anchor  of  safety  in  the  jfierce  storms  by  which 
"the  human  race  has  been  convulsed;  this  was 
*'the  sacred  bond  of  union  that  linked  together 
"nations  distant  in  region  and  differing  in  char- 
"acter;  in  short,  this  was  a  common  centre  from 
"which  was  sought  instruction  in  faith  and  re- 
"ligion,  no  less  than  guidance  and  advice  for  the 
"maintenance  of  peace  and  the  functions  of 
"practical  life."  ^ 

Hence  it  is  maintained  that  the  improvements 
in  social  life,  during  the  Middle  Ages,  were  accom- 
plished by  the  influence  exercised  on  secular  au- 
thority by  the  central  spiritual  power.  "The 
"Almighty  therefore  has  appointed  the  charge  of 
"the  human  race  between  two  powers,  the  Ecclesi- 

^  Pope  Leo  XIII,  The  Pope  and  the  People,    Select  Letters  and 
Addresses  on  Social  Questions,  17. 
2  Ibid.,  19. 

9 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 


« 


astical  and  the  Civil;  the  one  being  set  over  Ol- 
ivine, and  the  other  over  human  things.  Each  in 
*'its  kind  is  supreme,  each  has  fixed  limits  within 
"which  it  is  contained,  limits  which  are  defined  by 
"the  nature  and  special  object  of  the  province  of 
"each;  ^  .  .  .  one  of  the  two  has  for  its  proximate 
"and  chief  object  the  well  being  of  this  mortal  life; 
"  the  other  the  everlasting  joys  of  heaven.  What- 
"ever,  therefore,  in  things  human  is  of  a  sacred 
"character,  whatever  belongs  either  of  its  own  na- 
'*ture  or  by  reason  of  the  end  to  which  it  is  re- 
"f erred,  to  the  salvation  of  souls,  or  to  the  worship 
"of  God,  is  subject  to  the  power  of  the  judgment 
"of  the  Church.  Whatever  is  to  be  ranged  under 
"the  civil  and  political  order  is  rightly  subject  to 
"the  Civil  authority."  ^  gut  as  there  is  no  equiva- 
lence between  these  two  aspects  of  human  life, 
there  can  be  no  hard  and  fast  line  drawn  between 
the  two  powers.   "Just  as  the  end  at  which  the 
"  Church  aims  is  by  far  the  noblest  of  ends,  so  is  its 
"authority  the  most  exalted  of  all  authority,  nor 
"can  it  be  looked  upon  as  inferior  to  the  Civil 
"power,  or  in  any  manner  dependent  upon  it."  ^ 
"God  has  willed  that  one  should  be  the  head  of 
"all,  and  the  chief  and  unerring  teacher  of  truth."  ^ 

1  Pope  Leo  XIII,  The  Pope  and  the  People,  79. 

2  Ibid.,  80. 

3  Ibid.,  77. 
*  Ibid.,  77. 

10 


CHRISTENDOM  AND  THE  REFORMATION 

This  was  the  conviction  which  governed  society 
during  the  Middle  Ages;  and  it  is  easy  to  show 
that,  so  long  as  it  held  sway,  the  national  jeal- 
ousies and  the  social  difficulties,  which  have 
arisen  in  the  modern  era,  were  less  chaotic,  since 
there  was  a  spiritual  authority,  to  which  appeal 
might  be  made,  and  which  had  a  recognised  posi- 
tion for  dealing  with  them. 

During  the  later  Middle  Ages  there  had  been  a 
widespread  complaint  that  the  Church  was  be- 
coming secularised.  The  temporal  power  was  not 
merely  a  guarantee  for  spiritual  independence  but 
a  basis  for  frequent  interference  in  European 
politics  and  for  rivalry  in  magnificence  with  other 
courts. 

The  life  of  St.  Francis  and  the  foundation  of  his 
Order  is  a  monument  of  disapproval  of  the  secu- 
lar elements  in  ecclesiastical  institutions,  even 
among  those  who  fully  acknowledged  the  author- 
ity of  the  Pope;  and  this  alienation  was  strength- 
ened in  many  quarters  by  the  Renaissance  and 
the  progress  of  humanism.  The  secular  aspect  of 
the  Papacy  became  more  pronounced  than  before, 
and  the  critics  were  furnished  with  new  weapons 
to  attack  the  old  order. 

All  this  paved  the  way  for  the  rejection  of 
the  claims  of  the  Papacy  to  exercise  authority 

11 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

over  civil  powers.  The  severance  of  Christen- 
dom, and  the  revolt  of  the  Lutherans  and 
the  English  from  Rome,  were  far  less  due  to 
the  theological  questions  about  the  Sacraments, 
which  came  into  the  forefront  in  the  contro- 
versies of  the  day,  than  to  the  fact  that  the  claim 
of  a  secularised  Church  to  exercise  spiritual  au- 
thority over  the  civil  power  no  longer  found  the 
acceptance  which  had  been  generally  accorded  to 
it  for  centuries.  It  is  clear  that  in  various  parts  of 
England,  at  all  events,  strong  antagonism  was 
felt  to  the  disuse  of  the  old  ritual  and  to  the 
changes  introduced  by  Henry  VIII.  Indeed  it  is 
commonly  admitted  that  the  English  Reforma- 
tion was  political,  rather  than  religious,  but  it  is  a 
mistake  to  ascribe  it  to  a  personal  whim  which 
was  carried  through  in  a  high-handed  fashion 
by  Henry  VIII.  The  King  was  only  able  to  give 
effect  to  his  views,  because  the  traditional  respect 
for  the  spiritual  authority  of  a  secularised  Papacy 
had  been  already  undermined. 

There  was  one  particular  exercise  of  the  Papal 
authority,  as  an  international  arbiter,  which  gave 
rise  to  widespread  resentment  among  people  in 
England,  especially  English  mariners;  they  had 
been  keenly  interested  in  the  voyages  which  led  to 
the  discovery  of  the  New  World ;  and  they  bitterly 
resented   the   decision    of   the   Papacy,    which 

1^ 


CHRISTENDOM  AND  THE  REFORMATION 

handed  over  these  new  lands  either  to  Spain  or 
to  Portugal,  and  left  no  scope  for  the  northern 
peoples  to  have  a  share  in  this  great  develop- 
ment. 

The  English  pioneers  in  trade  and  colonization 
were  not  to  be  held  back  by  a  decision  of  this  sort. 
They  refused  to  admit  the  authority  of  the  Poten- 
tate who  had  pronounced  it;  and,  as  time  went  on, 
popular  feeling  became  more  and  more  bitter;  not 
only  were  the  English  prohibited  from  direct  ac- 
cess to  the  new  lands,  but  trade  with  Spanish  and 
Portuguese  dominions  was  hampered  by  increas- 
ing difficulties.  The  Inquisition  looked  askance  at 
English  merchants  who  temporarily  settled  in 
Spanish  ports  or  at  the  Canaries.^  The  story  of 
cruelties  which  were  undertaken  in  the  name  of 
religion,  and  which  were  exemplified  in  England 
during  the  reign  of  Queen  Mary,  had  a  great  effect 
in  awakening  a  widespread  repugnance.  A  wave 
of  horror  spread  over  England  at  the  massacre  on 
St.  Bartholomew's  Day.  Many  men  who  did  not 
aspire  to  form  their  own  opinions  on  theological 
questions  had  difficulty  in  believing  that  an  au- 
thority which  could  only  be  maintained  by  such 
measures  was  really  and  truly  Christian,  and  the 
respect  for  the  Papacy  as  a  spiritual  authority 
was  dissipated. 

1  Royal  Hist.  Soc,  Trans,  iii,  (Series  iii,),  257. 

13 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

The  disorders  which  arose  in  connection  with 
the  Reformation  movement  were  so  various  and  so 
embittered  that  there  seemed  to  be  good  ground 
for  beheving  that  the  restoration  of  the  authority 
of  the  Pope  was  a  necessary  prehminary  to  any 
reconstruction  of  social  and  poHtical  Kfe.  This 
view  was  enthusiastically  maintained  by  Ignatius 
Loyola  and  the  Jesuits,  who  became  the  devout 
adherents  of  the  Papal  See:  under  their  leadership 
the  Counter-Reformation  had  no  little  success  in 
the  sixteenth  and  early  seventeenth  centuries. 
It  seemed  for  a  time  that  if  the  Traditional  Eccle- 
siastical authority  were  exercised  on  modern  lines 
it  might  be  completely  reinstated  in  Western 
Christendom.  The  Jesuits  have  been  the  object  of 
frequent  suspicion  as  a  political  danger,  but  they 
have  kept  their  ground  and  continue  to  be  the 
backbone  of  Ultramontanism;  and  the  principles 
they  promulgated  in  regard  to  political  and  social 
life  have  greatly  influenced  the  position  which  is 
taken  by  Roman  Catholics  in  the  present  day. 
Devout  Roman  Catholics  appear  to  hold  that 
Christianity  can  only  be  brought  to  bear  on  social 
and  political  life  through  the  agency  of  a  Divinely 
appointed  spiritual  authority,  and  that  the  recog- 
nition of  this  authority  is  a  necessary  preliminary 
to  any  efforts  for  the  amelioration  of  society  which 
can  hope  to  be  fruitful  and  lasting.  In  democratic 

14 


CHRISTENDOM  AND  THE  REFORMATION 

countries  Roman  Catholics  are  reactionary  politi- 
cally, even  when  they  have  been  specially  active 
in  advocating  particular  social  reforms. 

II.    EXTERNAL   SPIRITUAL   AUTHORITY 

A  very  remarkable  work  for  dealing  from  a 
Christian  standpoint  with  all  the  acknowledged 
social  evils  of  the  day  —  the  miseries  of  the  poor, 
the  responsibilities  of  the  rich,  the  greed  and  ruth- 
lessness  of  capital,  and  the  disintegration  of  soci- 
ety —  was  initiated  by  Bishop  Ketteler  of  Mainz. 
He  made  a  striking  pronouncement  at  a  Catholic 
Congress,  in  1848,  as  to  the  importance  of  the 
task  of  bringing  religion  to  bear  upon  social  con- 
ditions,^ and  eventually  he  had  an  extraordinary 
success  in  organising  a  body  of  earnest  Christians 
who  devoted  themselves  to  social  reform.  The 
history  of  the  German  Catholic  Congress  shows 
how  rapidly  this  work  has  developed.  It  has 
brought  devout  Christians  into  close  contact  with 
the  aspirations  and  efforts  of  the  democracy  for 
material  improvement.  ^  It  has  done  much  to 
smooth  away  the  influence  of  class  prejudices,  and 
it  has  brought  various  societies  for  the  promotion 
of  human  welfare  into  closer  and  conscious  co- 
operation.^   It  has  also  exercised  a  considerable 

^  Plater,  Catholic  Social  Work  in  Germany,  8. 
2  Dawson,  Evolution  of  Modern  Germany,  112. 
^  Plater,  op.  ciL,  99. 

15 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

political  influence  through  the  Centre  Party  in 
Parliament,  and  the  activity  of  its  newspaper 
press.  The  principles  and  the  methods  on  which 
Ketteler  acted  have  received  the  sanction  of 
Papal  authority,  and  have  inspired  in  no  small 
degree  the  remarkable  series  of  Encyclicals  which 
Pope  Leo  XIII  gave  to  the  world.  But  the  effort 
to  undertake  and  carry  on  this  social  work  of 
reorganisation  was  intimately  connected,  in  Ket- 
teler's  own  mind,  with  the  recognition  and  main- 
tenance of  Papal  authority.  His  own  determina- 
tion to  throw  his  personal  activities  into  the  cause 
of  the  Church  seems  to  have  been  due  to  his  in- 
tense feeling  at  the  indignities  put  on  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Cologne,  when  he  was  imprisoned  at 
Minden  in  1837.^  Towards  the  close  of  his  life, 
when,  in  May,  1873,  the  laws  which  interfered 
with  the  liberties  of  the  Church,  in  teaching  and 
preaching,  were  passed,  Ketteler  took  a  leading 
part  in  the  fight  for  spiritual  independence  which 
was  known  as  the  Kultur  Kampf;  it  was  only  when 
the  State  had  withdrawn  from  a  position  that  was 
proving  untenable  that  the  Christian  social  activi- 
ties which  he  had  initiated  could  be  effectively 
resumed.  His  attitude  on  this  matter  has  also 
been  endorsed  by  the  Pope,  who  writes,  "Seeing, 
"therefore,  that  all  the  hopes  of  Italy  and  of  the 

1  Plater,  Catholic  Social  Work  in  Germany,  5. 

16 


CHRISTENDOM  AND  THE  REFORMATION 

"whole  world  lie  in  the  power  so  beneficent  to  the 
"common  good  and  profit,  wherewith  the  author- 
"ity  of  the  Apostolic  See  is  endowed,  and  in  the 
"close  union  which  binds  all  the  faithful  of  Christ 
"to  the  Roman  Pontiff,  We  recognise  that  nothing 
"should  be  nearer  Our  heart  than  how  to  preserve 
"safe  and  sound  the  dignity  of  the  Roman  See, 
"and  to  strengthen  ever  more  and  more  the  union 
"of  members  with  the  Head,  of  the  children  with 
"their  Father."  1 

The  claim,  which  was  put  forward  by  Leo  XIII 
in  regard  to  Christian  action  in  the  time  of  peace, 
is  renewed  by  Benedict  XV  as  essential  for  the 
effective  action  of  the  Church  in  the  present  war: 
"For  a  long  time  past  the  Church  has  not  enjoyed 
"that  full  freedom  which  it  needs,  never  since  the 
"Sovereign  Pontiff,  its  Head,  was  deprived  of 
"that  protection  which  by  Divine  Providence  had 
"  in  the  course  of  ages  been  set  up  to  defend  that 
"freedom.  ...  All  from  far  and  near  who  profess 
"themselves  sons  of  the  Roman  Pontiff,  rightly 
"  demand  a  guarantee  that  the  common  Father  of 
"all  should  be,  and  should  be  seen  to  be,  perfectly 
"free  from  all  human  power  in  the  administration 
"of  his  apostolic  oflace.  And  so  while  earnestly 
"desiring  that  peace  should  soon  be  concluded 

^  The  Pope  and  the  People,  21. 
17 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

"amongst  the  nations,  it  is  also  Our  desire  that 
"there  should  be  an  end  to  the  abnormal  position 
"of  the  Head  of  the  Church,  a  position  in  many 
"ways  very  harmful  to  the  very  peace  of  nations. 
"We  hereby  renew,  and  for  the  same  reasons,  the 
"many  protests  Our  Predecessors  have  made 
"against  such  a  state  of  things,  moved  thereto  not 
"by  human  interest,  but  by  the  sacredness  of  our 
"office,  in  order  to  defend  the  rights  and  dignity 
"of  the  Apostolic  See."  ^ 

The  assertion  of  this  claim,  to  maintain  or  rein- 
troduce the  recognition  of  an  external  spiritual 
authority,  has  been  the  cause  of  political  difficul- 
ties and  divisions  in  not  a  few  countries;  and  this 
may  be  noted,  not  with  the  view  of  coming  to  any 
decision  as  to  the  right  or  wrong  of  the  claim,  but 
simply  in  order  to  gauge  whether  there  is  any  im- 
mediate prospect  that  it  will  become  effective.  If 
Christian  Social  Reform  is  dependent  on  the 
recognition  of  an  outside  spiritual  authority,  it  is 
to  be  feared  that  this  reform  will  be  indefinitely 
delayed.  The  controversy  in  regard  to  the  Kultur 
KampfnTose  out  of  the  desire  of  Prussia  to  assimi- 
late the  population  of  recently  acquired  provinces 
on  the  Rhine  and  in  Poland,  so  that  the  whole 
realm  might  become  more  homogeneous.  The  re- 
sult of  the  struggle  has  been  to  accentuate  these 

1  Encyclical,  1  November,  1914.  Tablet,  12  December,  1914,  p.  170. 

18 


CHRISTENDOM  AND  THE  REFORMATION 

differences,  to  lower  the  respect  for  civil  authority, 
and  to  diminish  the  sentiment  of  loyalty.^  At  the 
same  time,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  the  Chris- 
tian influence,  as  thus  organised,  in  regard  to  so- 
cial matters  is  really  increasing.  There  is  at  least 
some  reason  to  believe  that  the  Roman  Catholic 
element  in  the  north  of  Germany  is  becoming  of 
less  importance  relatively  in  the  life  of  the  State, 
and  is  not  growing  so  as  to  hold  its  own  in  existing 
circumstances.  2 

In  Belgium  the  Catholic  Social  Movement  had 
been  wonderfully  successful  in  exercising  a  very 
real  political  influence  by  securing  a  majority  in 
the  Belgian  Chambers;  since  1883  a  large  number 
of  valuable  measures  for  the  limiting  of  the  hours 
of  labour  and  the  improvement  of  the  conditions 
of  work  ^  have  been  passed.  With  these  the  cleri- 
cal party  are  in  fullest  sympathy,  and  may  fairly 
claim  credit  for  them,  though  it  is  not  clear  that 
they  have  initiated  them  or  could  have  carried 
them  through  unaided.  There  was  also  much  un- 
certainty as  to  the  power  of  the  clerical  party 
to  retain  their  position  and  to  continue  to  exercise 
a  dominating  influence. 

Further,  while  this  movement  does  not  appear 

1  G.  Bazin,  Windhorst,  250.  A.  L.  Lowell,  Governments  and  Pat' 
ties,  II,  12. 

2  Rost,  Die  wirth.  und  kult.  Lage  der  deutschen  Katholiker,  184. 

'  Max  Turmann,  Le  developpement  du  Catkolicisme  social,  96,  272. 

19 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

to  be  growing  in  the  country  in  which  the  first 
impulse  was  felt,  it  shows  few  signs  of  spreading; 
it  has  not  been  successfully  initiated  either  in 
Italy  or  France.  In  France  there  is  indeed  such 
a  division  of  opinion,  between  those  who  are 
in  sympathy  with  socialism  and  those  who  are  in 
sympathy  with  individualism,  that  there  is  little 
hope  of  such  effective  organisation  for  social  pur- 
poses as  has  been  created  in  Germany.^  During 
the  last  generation,  an  immense  amount  of  labour 
legislation,  in  regard  to  Workmen's  Compensation 
and  Insurance,  and  the  regulation  of  factories,  has 
been  passed  in  France,  but  the  Roman  Catholic 
influence  in  support  of  it  has  been  so  slight  as  to 
be  almost  negligible. 

The  Encyclicals  of  Leo  XIII  are  exceedingly  in- 
teresting as  showing  the  sympathetic  attitude 
which  had  been  adopted  by  the  Pope  and  very 
many  clergy  of  the  Roman  Church  towards  the 
aims  of  the  democracy.  But  they  are  not  after  all 
very  successful  in  giving  us  authoritative  guid- 
ance in  regard  to  the  social  difficulties  of  the  day. 
They  are  indeed  valuable  as  a  statement  of  a  care- 
fully formed  opinion;  but  the  very  form,  which 
they  necessarily  take,  prevents  them  from  meet- 
ing the  actual  requirements  of  the  day.  The  dicta 

^  Day,  Catholic  Democracy,  282. 
20 


CHRISTENDOM  AND  THE  REFORMATION 

of  an  external  authority  must  necessarily  be 
stated  in  general  terms,  and  by  the  laying  down 
of  broad  principles.  In  international  disputes 
the  Papal  pronouncements  have  been  ineffec- 
tive because  they  are  merely  the  announcement 
of  humanitarian  sentiments  ^  or  the  statements 
of  truisms  about  natural  justice;  they  show  no 
signs  of  insight  and  power  of  discrimination. 
There  never  has  been  a  war  when  it  was  impossi- 
ble to  put  forward  some  grievance  as  a  pretext  for 
appealing  to  arms  or  to  maintain  that  justice  re- 
quired that  a  wrong  should  be  avenged.  For  the 
Sovereign  Pontiff,  "  as  supreme  interpreter  of  the 
"  eternal  law,"  to  "proclaim  that  for  no  reason  is  it 
"allowable  to  injure  justice,"  is  a  waste  of  words, 
so  long  as  he  thinks  it  improper  to  "entangle  the 
"pontifical  authority  in  the  disputes  between 
"belligerents."  ^   Similarly,  the  difficulties  of  life 

1  Benedict  XV,  "Letter  to  the  Catholic  World,"  The  Tablet, 
September  26,  1914,  p.  436.  "Those  who  rule  the  affairs  of  peoples 
"  We  urgently  implore  and  conjure  that  they  now  turn  their  minds 
"to  forget  all  their  own  discords  for  the  sake  of  the  salvation  of 
"human  society;  that  they  consider  that  already  there  is  enough 
"  misery  and  trouble  in  the  life  of  men  that  it  should  not  be  rendered 
"for  a  long  time  more  miserable  and  troubled;  that  they  be  satisfied 
"with  the  ruin  wrought,  the  human  blood  already  shed;  that  they 
"initiate  councils  of  peace  and  reconcile  themselves;  for  thus  will 
"they  truly  deserve  well  of  God  and  of  their  own  peoples,  and  will  be 
"  benefactors  of  the  civil  society  of  the  nations.  And  for  Us,  who  at 
"  this,  the  very  beginning  of  Our  Apostolic  Office,  see  grave  troubles 
"  in  the  terrible  disorganization  of  all  things  —  let  them  know  that 
"  they  will  be  doing  a  thing  most  pleasing  to  Us  and  one  which  from 
"all  Our  heart  We  desire." 

2  The  Tablet,  January  30,  1915,  p.  156. 

21 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

in  a  progressive  state  of  society  are  primarily 
those  of  applying  the  principles.  The  conditions 
of  life,  and  the  possibilities  of  individual  improve- 
ment and  of  collective  production,  are  changing 
from  day  to  day  and  hour  to  hour.  New  forms  of 
social  organisation  are  being  evolved;  traditional 
principles  seem  to  be  mere  statements  of  truisms 
or  of  pious  aspirations,  and  an  external  spiritual 
authority  can  do  little  in  bringing  these  principles 
into  effect.  The  Roman  Church  is  compelled  to 
abstain  from  direct  political  action;  she  cannot 
identify  herself  with  any  political  party  in  the 
State  nor  with  Socialism  in  so  far  as  it  asserts  the 
predominant  importance  of  materialistic  aims; 
and  as  she  cannot  coalesce  with  the  extreme  Col- 
lectivism of  the  Socialist  school,  she  is  also  de- 
barred from  allying  herself  with  the  extreme  Indi- 
vidualism of  the  opposite  Liberal  school.^  But 
party  government  is  the  most  effective  agent  for 
political  action  in  democratic  communities,  and  of 
this  weapon  the  Church,  through  its  acceptance  of 
an  external  spiritual  authority,  cannot  make  use. 
Even  in  giving  advice  to  private  individuals 
the  scope  of  the  action  of  the  Roman  Church 
is  limited.  There  are  many  particular  questions 
of  right  and  justice  on  which  her  members  are 
divided,  and  from  which  the  Church  holds  aloof. 

^  Day,  Catholic  Democracy,  233. 
2^ 


CHRISTENDOM  AND  THE  REFORMATION 

Types  of  these  questions  are  —  the  exact  fixing  of 
the  limits  of  State  intervention,  the  arrangements 
of  just  wages  as  between  masters  and  servants, 
the  determination  of  the  relative  value  of  different 
kinds  of  labour,  and  the  precise  apportioning  of 
the  rewards  of  industry  to  the  various  agents  who 
conjointly  produce  it.  In  regard  to  such  questions 
the  Church  has  no  immediate  message,  and  she 
refuses  to  arbitrate.  ^  Nor  has  the  Pope  ever  suc- 
ceeded  in  reconciling  the   conflicting   claims   of 
different  principles  which  are  urged  by  various 
parties  in  the  present  day.   Much  is  said  of  the 
principle  of  justice,  but  it  is  not  always  easy  to 
see  in  what  way  this  principle  is  interpreted.    In 
the  early  Middle  Ages  the  principle  of  justice  as 
an  economic  guide  was  chiefly  concerned  with 
the  consumption  of  goods,  and  was  interpreted 
as  meaning  that  every  member  of  a  community 
should  share  according  to  his  needs.    In  modern 
times  it  had  been  more  generally  interpreted  with 
reference  to  production,  and  as  implying  that  each 
member  of  a  community  should  share  according 
to  his  contribution  to  the  resources  of  the  com- 
munity. 2  But  neither  of  these  interpretations  will 
serve  in  great  modern  democracies  by  itself  and 
alone;  from  the  principle  that  each  should  share 

1  Day,  Catholic  Democracy,  234. 

^  Cunningham,  Christianity  and  Economic  Science,  29. 

23 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

according  to  need  the  conclusion  may  be  deduced 
that  any  or  all  have  a  right  to  live  in  idleness.  On 
the  other  hand  the  principle,  that  each  should 
receive  in  strict  accordance  to  the  contribution 
he  makes  to  the  resources  of  society,  is  very  hard 
upon  the  helpless  and  inefficient.  Neither  state- 
ment can  be  applied  generally  to  society,  with- 
out serious  mischief;  while  it  seems  impossible 
to  reconcile  these  formulae  when  stated  in  general 
terms. 

The  problems  presented  to  the  Christian  man 
by  life  in  modern  society  solvuntur  amhulando. 
The  difficulty  about  Christian  principles  van- 
ishes if  they  are  regarded  not  as  principles  for 
the  organisation  of  society,  but  as  the  basis  of 
personal  duty  in  society;  they  may  furnish  us, 
each  and  all,  with  conceptions  of  what  our  per- 
sonal conduct  ought  to  be.  The  principle  of  dis- 
tribution according  to  need  is  the  basis  of  the 
personal  Christian  duty  of  alms-giving,  and  it  is 
for  each  one  of  us  to  interpret  his  ability  con- 
scientiously for  himself.  The  principle  of  remu- 
neration according  to  contribution  is  the  basis 
of  the  social  duty  of  work.  It  is  incumbent  upon 
each  man  to  see  that  his  work  is  so  diligent  and 
thorough  that  he  is  making  an  adequate  contribu- 
tion for  the  share  he  receives  from  society,  and 
this  applies  as  much  to  those  who  are  engaged  in 


CHRISTENDOM  AND  THE  REFORMATION 

organising  business  or  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge 
as  it  does  to  manual  labourers.  In  actual  life  and 
personal  conduct,  there  is  little  difficulty  in  recon- 
ciling the  two  principles,  and  it  is  possible  to  be 
strenuous  in  giving  effect  to  both.  What  is  chiefly 
needed  from  the  Christian  point  of  view  in  the 
present  day  is  the  exercise  of  a  spiritual  power  to 
awaken  individuals  to  a  sense  of  duty  and  to  in- 
spire them  to  do  it.  The  Salvation  Army  has  had 
an  extraordinary  influence  in  convincing  men  of 
the  reality  of  the  spiritual  as  a  factor  in  human 
life,  because  it  has  dealt  with  individuals  per- 
sonally; while  the  laying  down  of  external  prin- 
ciples in  general  terms  would  be  of  comparatively 
little  help  in  the  special  circumstances  of  the 
present  day.  From  the  religious  point  of  view 
the  social  doctrine  of  the  Encyclicals  is  excellent 
ethically,  but  it  is  unconvincing  and  uninspir- 
ing; it  has  not  the  marks  of  spiritual  authority 
to  which  the  individual  conscience  is  drawn  to 
respond. 

III.  THE  ALOOFNESS  OF  ANGLO-SAXON 

PEOPLES 

While  the  Roman  Church  as  an  effective  guide 
in  the  solution  of  political  and  social  difficulties 
seems  to  have  made  little  progress  during  the  last 
decade  on  the  Continent,  there  is  no  indication 

25 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

that  the  Anglo-Saxon  peoples  are  prepared  to  re- 
verse the  decision  which  was  taken  at  the  Refor- 
mation and  to  accept  guidance  from  Papal  au- 
thority.^ There  are  no  signs  in  the  political  world 
of  a  readiness  to  submit  to  an  external  spiritual 
authority;  but  this  does  not  mean  that  these  peo- 
ples are  altogether  indifferent  about  bringing  a 
religious  influence  to  bear  on  political  life;  it 
means  that  they  hold  that  spiritual  influence  may 
be  most  effectively  exercised  on  the  individual 
personally,  —  that  the  appeal  to  the  individual 
conscience  is  the  most  direct  which  can  be  made, 
that  it  is  least  encumbered  by  secular  forms,  and 
that  it  bears  fruit  immediately  in  action  on  a 
larger  or  smaller  scale.  Hence  it  appears  probable 
that  whatever  progress  the  Roman  Church  may 
make  in  recovering  lost  ground,  as  regards  the 
spread  of  theological  doctrine  and  habits  of  wor- 
ship, there  is  no  weakening  in  the  opposition  to 
accepting  the  guidance  of  an  external  authority  in 
political  and  social  life.  The  English  Reformation 
was  based  on  this  principle,  and  the  deep-seated 
repugnance  to  national  submission  to  Rome  still 
rests  on  the  same  foundation. 

There  is  a  very  general  tendency  to  regard  the 
Roman  Catholic  community  with  suspicion,  and 

1  There  is  a  widespread  feeling,  put  by  M.  Latapie  indefinite  form, 
that  the  Papal  See  may  be  so  far  concerned  in  protecting  its  own  in- 
terests as  to  fail  to  be  an  impartial  arbiter.    Times,  23  June,  1915. 

26 


CHRISTENDOM  AND  THE  REFORMATION 

to  believe  that  they  have  a  sense  of  duty  to  look 
primarily  at  the  possibility  of  fostering  the  Ro- 
man Church,  and  only  secondarily  at  the  good  of 
the  community  as  a  whole,  whether  it  is  a  city  or 
a  nation.  From  the  point  of  view  of  the  Romanist, 
who  believes  that  the  good  of  the  community  as 
a  whole  can  only  be  attained  through  submission 
to  the  Roman  Church,  this  distinction  does  not 
exist;  but  it  is  strongly  present  in  the  minds  of 
many  members  of  the  community,  and  the  con- 
flict is  always  apt  to  arise  over  questions  in  re- 
gard to  marriage  and  to  facilities  for  the  religious 
education  of  children.  Owing  to  these  points  of 
cleavage  it  becomes  difficult  to  treat  society  as 
a  homogeneous  whole,  and  the  effectiveness  of 
national  organisation  is  endangered.  But  further 
than  this,  these  points  of  difference  may  be  the 
occasion  of  deep-seated  cleavage.  In  the  Prussian 
Kingdom  the  influence  of  the  Papacy  was  strongly 
felt  among  the  Poles  and  the  people  of  the  Rhine 
Provinces,  and  the  Kultur  Kampf  proved  a  hin- 
drance to  the  growth  of  a  national  life.  In  a  simi- 
lar fashion  the  Papal  influence  is  strong  among 
the  Celtic  population  of  Ireland,^  and  the  fear  of 
the  measures  which  might  be  adopted  in  a  Dub- 
lin Parliament  and  of  partiality  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  laws  through  clerical  intrigue,  has 

^  Plunkett,  Ireland  in  the  New  Century,  99. 

27 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

haunted  the  people  of  Ulster  in  their  opposition 
to  Home  Rule.  It  is  even  possible  that  a  similar 
cleavage  will  show  itself  in  some  of  the  United 
States;  and  that  in  these  areas,  where  the  French 
Canadians  or  the  Irish  are  a  dominating  majority, 
alarm  may  be  raised  as  to  the  possibility  of  a 
complete  departure  from  the  American  tradition 
in  regard  to  political  and  social  life.  How  far 
these  fears  and  suspicions  may  be  justified  is  not 
a  point  on  which  it  is  worth  while  to  express  an 
opinion,  but  the  fact  remains  that  the  Roman 
Church  has  had,  and  is  likely  to  continue  to  have, 
comparatively  little  opportunity  of  bringing  reli- 
gious influence  to  bear  on  the  political  and  social 
life  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  peoples. 

From  many  points  of  view  this  severance  is  a 
matter  of  great  regret,  especially  as  it  has  pre- 
vented Christian  opinion  in  England  and  America 
from  taking  such  full  account,  as  it  deserves,  of 
the  work  of  Roman  Catholic  writers.  Amid  the 
chaos  of  opinions  which  are  expressed  by  different 
authors  in  the  name  of  Christianity,  or  as  deduc- 
ible  from  Christianity,  Roman  writers  have  pre- 
served a  remarkably  sane  and  judicial  tone;  even 
those  readers  who  do  not  find  them  convincing 
can  hardly  fail  to  regard  them  as  impressive;  they 
never  allow  themselves  to  forget  that  the  work 

28 


CHRISTENDOM  AND  THE  REFORMATION 

of  the  Church  is  essentially  spiritual,  and  that 
the  importance  of  material   conditions  is  only 
incidental  and  not  the  main  work  for  which  the 
Church  exists.  They  do  not  allow  themselves  to 
fall  into  false  abstractions,  and  to  look  on  society 
as  merely  mechanical,  but  give  its  full  importance 
to  human  personality.  They  are  not  carried  away 
by  the  feeling  that  we  have  entered  on  a  new  era, 
to  which  the  experience  of  past  ages  is  altogether 
irrelevant,  so  that  it  may  be  ignored.  The  fact 
that  the  various  writers  look  at  these  problems 
from  a  common  standpoint  and  have  adopted  the 
same  principles,  gives  a  certain  unity  to  their 
treatment  of  the  questions  that  come  under  re- 
view.  They  put  forward  not  merely  the  expres- 
sion of  personal  opinion,  affected  by  personal 
temperament  and  individual  experience,  but  the 
teaching  of  a  school.   The  broad  lines  which  are 
laid  down  in  the  Encyclicals  are  worked  out  in 
fuller  detail  by  Turmann  in  a  book  which  is  espe- 
cially interesting  in  the  discussion  of  usury  and 
capital;  ^  and  the  writings  of  Father  Day  on  De- 
mocracy, of  Cardinal  Vaughan  and  of  the  late 
C.  S.  Devas  on  Economics,  if  they  do  not  give 
definite  guidance  to  the  community  as  to  practi- 
cal conduct,  are  at  least  a  very  great  help  to  clear 
and  consistent  thinking. 

*  Max  Turmann,  Le  dSveloppement  du  Catholicisme  social,  152. 


II 

CHURCH  AND  STATE  IN  ENGLAND 
I.    NATIONAL   LIFE 

There  were  many  personal  elements  which  en- 
tered into  the  English  Reformation  and  tended  to 
obscure  the  main  issue,  but  a  fundamental  prin- 
ciple was  involved  in  the  breach  with  Rome.  King 
Henry  VIII  claimed  that  the  Crown  was  supreme 
over  all  causes  in  England  and  he  refused  to  allow 
appeals  in  ecclesiastical  matters  to  Rome.  He  was 
followed  in  his  repudiation  of  the  spiritual  author- 
ity of  the  Roman  See  by  Edward  VI,  Elizabeth, 
James  I,  and  Charles  I.  This  protest  against  Ro- 
man encroachment  on  the  English  realm,  as  they 
had  come  to  regard  it,  was  not  merely  negative;  it 
implied  that  England  was  a  self-sufficing  Empire 
which  could  rule  its  own  affairs  of  every  kind. 
Church  and  State  were  two  aspects  of  the  same 
community;  and,  during  the  sixteenth  and  early 
seventeenth  centuries,  this  double  character  of 
national  life  was  consciously  borne  in  mind  in  all 
administrative  details.   During  the  Middle  Ages 
it  had  been  recognised  that  there  were  two  aspects 
of  Christendom,  a  spiritual  side  controlled  by  the 

30 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  IN  ENGLAND 

Pope,  while  the  Emperor  was  supreme  over  civil 
affairs;  but  the  area  where  the  Imperial  authority 
extended  was  not  coterminous  with  that  of  the 
ecclesiastical  rule  of  the  Papacy,  and  the  frequent 
antagonism  of  the  two  heads  of  Christendom  pre- 
vented the  ecclesiastical  and  civil  authorities  from 
conscious  co-operation.  In  England  the  area  of 
royal  authority  both  in  Church  and  State  was 
clearly  defined,  and  there  was  a  fusion,  or  at  all 
events  close  co-operation,  between  the  two  bodies 
of  administrators  such  as  had  never  existed  be- 
fore. Henry  VIII  and  his  son,  Elizabeth  and  her 
two  immediate  successors  all  endeavoured  to  order 
the  national  life  as  a  Christian  polity,  —  to  exer- 
cise administrative  authority  in  regard  to  things 
spiritual,  as  well  as  civil  authority  in  secular 
affairs.  The  title  page  of  Cranmer's  Bible,  which 
represents  King  Henry  VIII  as  distributing  the 
Bible  to  be  a  guide  for  national  life,  depicts  the 
Bishops  and  ecclesiastics  on  the  one  side  and 
the  civil  authorities  on  the  other,  and  represents 
both  as  the  media  by  which  right  feeling  and  good 
government  might  be  diffused  among  the  people. 
The  claim  to  exercise  an  administrative  author- 
ity in  spiritual  affairs  was  not  by  any  means  new; 
it  had  been  universally  held  that  the  civil  power 
in  the  person  of  the  Christian  Prince  was  called 
upon  to  foster  religion,  and  this  duty  might  obvi- 

31 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

ously  involve  attempts  to  improve  ecclesiastical 
efficiency.  Much  had  been  done  in  Spain  to  re- 
move abuses  in  the  Church,  and  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Inquisition  in  1497  was  an  earnest 
attempt,  on  the  part  of  the  Crown,  to  maintain  at 
once  purity  of  religion  and  purity  of  race.  Papal 
authority  over  ecclesiastical  affairs  in  Spain  was 
reduced  to  a  minimum.  Again,  the  Emperor 
Charles  V  had  endeavoured  to  mediate  between 
the  various  religious  parties  in  Germany  and  to 
establish  an  Interim  over  ecclesiastical  arrange- 
ments by  secular  power.  The  claim  of  Gallican 
liberties  in  France  was  another  step  in  the  same 
direction,  and  Henry  VIII  was  probably  hardly 
conscious  that  he  was  going  beyond  existing  pre- 
cedents; both  he  and  Elizabeth  carefully  guarded 
themselves  against  any  claim  to  personal  author- 
ity in  things  spiritual,  but  relied  on  the  Spirit- 
uality of  the  Realm  for  guidance  instead  of  on  an 
external  spiritual  authority.  But  this  distinction 
could  only  be  drawn  because  King  Henry  was 
able  in  the  Reformation  era  to  put  forward  a  new 
spiritual  authority  to  which  he  might  appeal. 
With  the  written  guidance  of  the  Bible  on  the 
one  hand  to  give  evidence  in  regard  to  the  essen- 
tials of  Christianity  for  all  time,  and  the  living 
tradition  and  institutions  of  the  English  Church 
on  the  other,  he  maintained  that  the  religious 

32 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  IN  ENGLAND 

aspect  of  national  life  could  be  rightly  ordered 
without  habitual  reliance  on  an  outside  authority. 
The  English  Church  was  thus  truly  national, 
but  it  also  maintained  its  character  as  spiritual, 
since  it  did  not  recognize  any  earthly  power  or 
written  law  as  in  itself  supreme  but  looked  to  a 
living  God  above  all  earthly  things.  In  the  Prayer 
Booh  the  blessing  of  God  is  asked  for  the  King  and 
Parliament  and  other  Civil  Authorities,  who  are 
directly  responsible  to  God  for  the  management 
of  public  affairs.  The  Lutherans  had  maintained 
the  strong  conJBdence  which  Luther  placed  in  the 
Princes,  through  whose  exercise  of  their  powers 
the  cause  of  the  Reformation  was  preserved  and 
law  and  order  maintained;  the  Kaiser  continues 
this  tradition,  and  is  ready  to  identify  the  particu- 
lar polity  over  which  he  rules  with  the  Kingdom 
of  God.  In  the  seventeenth  century  this  was  com- 
monly done  by  professing  Christians,  but,  in  the 
present  day,  it  seems  to  be  fanatical;  even  in 
Tudor  and  Caroline  times,  however,  the  English 
Prayer  Booh  and  Homilies  gave  no  countenance  to 
this  error.  The  existence  of  bad  princes  who  bring 
punishment  and  defeat  on  their  people  was  not 
forgotten:  ^  the  truth  that  God  is  the  supreme 
arbiter  and  that  we  should  approach  Him,  not 
with  a  consciousness  of  right,  but  confessing  our 

1  Homily  21. 
33 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

sins  and  humbly  imploring  His  blessing,  so  that 
our  efforts  may  bring  about  the  triumph  of  good 
and  promote  His  glory,  is  the  dominant  note  in 
the  prayers  for  time  of  war  and  for  sailors  before  a 
battle;  there  is  no  hint  of  exclusive  claims  to  Di- 
vine favour  and  the  tone  throughout  is  spiritual, 
as  the  prayers  are  concerned  with  actual  conflicts, 
not  merely  with  the  results  that  may  be  secured. 
The  language  of  the  English  Prayer  Booh  is  won- 
derfully free  from  the  assumption  which  runs 
through  the  Old  Testament,  and  which  was  in- 
herited from  the  Middle  Ages,  of  identifying  an 
earthly  polity  with  the  cause  of  God. 

The  English  Church,  in  repudiating  the  author- 
ity of  the  Pope,  did  not  accept  an  absolute  mon- 
archy, and  did  not  treat  the  Bible  as  the  last  word 
in  all  matters  of  secular  government.  The  appeal 
to  the  Bible  was  a  fundamental  factor  in  the 
Reformation  both  in  Germany,  Scotland  and 
England;  but  in  England  it  was  different  in 
character  from  that  of  the  thorough-going  Pro- 
testant. The  Calvinists  turned  to  the  Bible  as  a 
supreme  rule  of  life;  while  the  English  Reformers 
regarded  it  as  a  test  by  which  to  judge  of  the  cum- 
bersome and  unnecessary  in  ecclesiastical  institu- 
tions and  religious  worship.  They  recognised  that 
there  were  corruptions  in  the  Mediaeval  Church 
and  that  many  observances  were  superstitious; 

34 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  IN  ENGLAND 

they  needed  a  test  by  which  to  discriminate  as  to 
the  things  which  might  be  sacrificed  without  loss. 
The  New  Testament  was  evidence  as  to  primitive 
simpHcity,  it  therefore  showed  what  was  essential 
for  all  time;  and  they  treated  usages  and  doctrines, 
which  could  not  claim  scriptural  authority,  as 
excrescences  which  need  no  longer  be  preserved  in 
the  religious  life  of  the  realm.  Monasticism  had 
been  developed  in  the  West  in  the  fourth  century 
and  there  was  no  scriptural  authority  for  the  ex- 
istence of  monastic  institutions;  it  was  generally 
admitted  that  there  was  need  for  reform,  and  the 
silence  of  Scripture  was  an  excuse  for  a  sweeping 
dissolution.  The  changes  which  were  made  by 
Cranmer  in  doctrine  and  ritual  were  put  forward 
as  applications  of  this  principle;  and  on  the  other 
hand,  the  English  Reformers  retained  everything 
that  appeared  to  be  consonant  with  Scripture, 
when  allowance  was  made  for  the  inevitable  differ- 
ences between  the  conditions  of  a  missionary 
church  in  a  heathen  empire  and  the  institutions 
which  were  appropriate  to  a  Christian  polity. 
They  found  ample  evidence  of  ecclesiastical  organ- 
isation in  Apostolic  times,  and  of  the  enforce- 
ment of  ecclesiastical  discipline.  It  did  not 
appear  that  there  was  any  necessity  to  alter  the 
form  of  government  which  had  come  down  con- 
tinuously from  a  distant  past,  or  to  do  away  with 

35 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

the  episcopate  and  the  enforcement  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal discipHne  in  ecclesiastical  courts.  The  direct 
appeal  to  the  Bible  severed  the  English  nation  in 
its  ecclesiastical  aspect  from  Latin  Christendom, 
while  the  limited  nature  of  that  appeal  as  a  nega- 
tive test  and  the  preservation  of  the  traditional 
ecclesiastical  institutions  separated  it  from  the 
Protestant  communities,  whether  Lutheran  or 
Calvinistic. 

There  were  circumstances  which  had  tended  to 
bring  the  Central  Government  and  the  people  into 
closer  touch  during  the  sixteenth  century,  and 
helped  to  strengthen  the  sense  of  national  solidar- 
ity. The  centralising  policy  of  the  Tudors  had 
broken  down  much  of  the  feudal  independence  of 
the  great  families,  and  rendered  the  royal  will 
more  effective  in  all  parts  of  the  realm,  than  it  had 
been  before  the  Wars  of  the  Roses;  but  while  the 
royal  power  was  unrivalled,  the  Crown  was  yet 
becoming  more  directly  and  more  frequently  de- 
pendent on  taxation  for  the  means  of  the  govern- 
ment of  the  country.  The  King  could  no  longer 
live  of  his  own;  he  was  forced  to  rely  on  the  con- 
tributions of  the  people  and  the  general  resources 
of  the  realm.  Hence  the  community  of  interest 
between  the  King  and  his  subjects  came  more 
clearly  into  consciousness,  and  Hales  explained 

36 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  IN  ENGLAND 

that  the  King  cannot  have  treasure  when  his  sub- 
jects have  none.^  Royal  interest  was  combined 
with  royal  duty  in  efforts  to  see  that  the  people 
prospered.  The  people  looked  consciously  to  the 
Crown  as  the  power  which  would  save  them  from 
absorption  in  one  or  other  of  the  great  Latin 
monarchies,  and  the  Crown  looked  to  the  general 
prosperity  and  loyalty  of  the  realm  as  the  main 
support  on  which  reliance  could  be  placed. 

The  central  government  had  also  taken  over  a 
large  number  of  administrative  duties  which  had 
hitherto  been  administered  locally  by  civic  au- 
thorities or  manorial  lords.  This  local  administra- 
tion had  apparently  fallen  into  hopeless  decay 
during  the  fifteenth  century,  and  the  attempts  to 
galvanise  it  into  life  were  by  no  means  successful. 
Under  Elizabeth  the  gigantic  task  was  undertaken 
of  putting  all  local  administration  under  the  direct 
supervision  of  the  Crown.  Parliament  legislated 
on  such  subjects  as  the  conditions  of  work,  and 
the  terms  of  employment,  the  rates  of  payment, 
and  the  provision  for  the  poor,  the  quality  of 
goods,  and  the  conditions  of  sale,  and  especially  as 
regards  the  food  of  the  people.  In  regulating  the 
details  of  economic  life,  the  towns  of  the  Middle 
Ages  had  attained  their  greatness  by  conscious  ef- 
forts to  promote  the  good  of  the  civic  community 

^  Hales,  Discourse  of  the  Commonweal^  35. 

37 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

in  the  long  run,  and  to  put  down  all  that  savoured 
of  mere  private  interest  and  was  inconsistent  with 
the  good  of  the  town  as  they  conceived  it,  espe- 
cially with  its  ability  to  discharge  the  burden  of 
royal  taxation.  In  the  Elizabethan  period  this 
civic  sentiment  was  superseded  by  a  wider  and  na- 
tional enthusiasm.  There  was  a  conscious  desire 
to  bring  the  various  economic  forces  in  all  parts  of 
the  realm  into  co-operation  so  that  they  might 
promote  the  prosperity,  and  especially  the  political 
power  of  the  community,  —  not  merely  of  a  town, 
but  of  the  realm  as  a  whole.  The  Crown  could 
be  regarded  as  detached  from  local  and  private 
interests,  and  as  concerned  with  the  prosperity 
of  the  whole  realm.  It  was  occupied  with  larger 
interests  than  those  of  particular  localities  and 
particular  trades,  though  it  was  concerned  to 
see  that  each  locality  and  trade  was  contributing 
to  the  common  good.  Hence  there  was  the  emer- 
gence of  a  new  public  spirit;  the  Crown  and  Lords 
and  Commons  as  legislators,  and  the  King  and  his 
Council  as  administrators  and  supervisors,  were 
making  themselves  responsible  for  national  pros- 
perity in  all  its  forms.  The  more  enterprising  sec- 
tion of  the  community  was  especially  dependent 
on  the  good  offices  of  the  Crown.  The  opening  of 
new  markets  and  the  obtaining  of  trade  conces- 
sions could  only  be  secured  by  political  negotia- 

38 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  IN  ENGLAND 

tions  with  foreign  powers;  while  good  order  within 
the  realm,  and  the  provision  of  an  adequate  food 
supply  in  many  towns  and  districts,  were  secured 
by  effective  administration.  Industrial  and  com- 
mercial interests  were  consciously  dependent  on 
the  Crown,  while  the  Crown  was  directly  inter- 
ested in  their  prosperity. 

It  is  also  true  to  say  that  the  organisation  of  the 
Church  was  rendered  more  national  than  it  had 
ever  been  before.  The  separate  uses  of  different 
dioceses  were  swept  away;  and  the  two  provinces 
of  Canterbury  and  York  were  brought  into  closer 
contact  when  the  same  regulations  were  enforced 
upon  both,  and  a  common  order,  embodied  in  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  was  adopted  through- 
out the  realm.  The  clergy,  who  had  accepted 
the  Reformation  movement,  were  keenly  alive 
to  the  dangers  of  the  situation,  and  relied  upon 
the  Crown  as  the  bulwark  against  the  Counter- 
Reformation  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  revolution- 
ary changes  of  the  Calvinists  on  the  other.  Their 
sense  of  dependence  on  the  Crown,  as  the  ad- 
ministrative head  of  the  Church,  called  forth 
expressions  of  loyalty  which  seem  in  the  twen- 
tieth century  to  be  exaggerated.  The  homilists 
lay  a  somewhat  disproportionate  stress  on  the 
duty  of  civil  obedience,  and  Elizabeth  took  it  for 
granted  that  one  of  the  main  duties  of  the  clergy  as 

39 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

preachers  was  to  inculcate  the  duty  of  loyalty  to 
the  Crown,  so  that  the  administration  of  public 
affairs  might  be  conducted  smoothly  and  without 
friction.  From  the  circumstances  of  the  time  the 
Crown  was  the  representative  of  the  community 
as  a  whole,  both  as  regards  the  religious  side  of 
national  life  and  well-ordered  economic  progress. 
The  Crown  was  a  source  of  honour  or  advance- 
ment, the  power  and  honour  of  the  Crown  was  in- 
extricably connected  with  the  welfare,  not  of  one 
section  of  the  community  only,  but  of  the  whole; 
and  hence  loyalty  to  the  Crown  was  the  most 
obvious  of  social  duties. 

Just  as  attachment  to  the  Reformed  religion 
and  loyalty  to  the  Crown  were  curiously  blended 
in  the  patriotism  of  Elizabethan  times,  so  reli- 
gious and  secular  aims  were  combined  in  the 
attempts  which  were  made  for  the  expansion  of 
England.  The  sense  of  religious  mission,  which 
had  pervaded  Christendom  at  the  time  of  the  Cru- 
sades, w^as  not  wholly  dead;  it  was  revived  in  a 
more  definite  form  as  a  sense  of  national  mission 
to  the  tribes  of  the  New  World.  So  long  as  Eng- 
land stood  upon  the  defensive  there  was  little 
scope  for  this  feeling  to  assert  itself,  but  the  dis- 
comfiture of  the  Spanish  Armada  opened  up  new 
possibilities  to  the  English.    Hitherto  they  had 

40 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  IN  ENGLAND 

been  on  the  defensive,  seeking  to  maintain  na- 
tional existence;  but  in  1588  they  had  proved  their 
right  to  take  a  part  in  the  struggle  for  world 
power.  The  rival  which  had  hitherto  threatened 
their  existence  now  barred  their  progress.   Spain 
had  absorbed  Portugal,  and  the  English  resent- 
ment was  concentrated  on  tlie  institutions,  com- 
mercial, political  and  religious,  of  the  Spanish 
Monarchy.  Englishmen  had  a  conscious  pride  in 
their  own  country  which  comes  out  in  Harrison 
and  Holinshed  and  the  Debate  of  the  Heralds  ;  they 
felt  it  a  duty  to  prevent  the  Spaniards  from  domi- 
nating the  American  continent,  and  to  bring  Eng- 
lish influence  to  bear  on  the  development  of  these 
vast  territories.    The  Journal  of  Drake  and  the 
accounts  of  the  first  colonists  in  Virginia  ^  are 
sufficient  to  show  how  closely  the  sense  of  a  na- 
tional mission  to  benefit  the  world,  by  diffusing 
English  influence,  was  combined  with  the  practi- 
cal objects  which  the  pioneers  of  the  English  Em- 
pire had  in  view. 

In  the  sixteenth  century  and  for  long  after- 
wards the  landed  gentry  were  politically  the  most 
important  element  in  the  population.  Under  the 
old  fiscal  system  they  contributed  very  largely  to 
public  resources,  and  they  were  also,  as  magis- 

*  Cunningham,  Growth  of  English  Industry,  ii,  336. 

41 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

trates,  responsible  for  local  government  and  for 
carrying  out  administrative  regulation.  There 
always  had  been  land  owners;  but  the  landed  gen- 
try of  the  Elizabethan  period  had  a  somewhat 
different  character  from  their  predecessors.  The 
great  families  with  their  household  of  retainers, 
who  had  fought  in  the  Wars  of  the  Roses,  were 
extinct  as  a  class;  and  many  of  the  new  gentry 
were  inclined  to  devote  themselves  to  the  im- 
provement of  their  estates  and  to  the  duties  of 
civil  life. 

In  some  cases  it  appeared  that  agricultural  im- 
provement was  pushed  on  ruthlessly,  in  disregard 
of  long  standing  customary  rights;  ^  where  these 
changes  brought  about  a  definite  increase  in  the 
resources  of  the  realm,  it  was  plausible  to  plead 
that  a  public  benefit  was  attained  in  spite  of  the 
incidental  grievance  created;  and  the  Crown  rec- 
ognised that  the  influence  of  the  resident  gentry 
was  essential  to  the  good  government  of  the  coun- 
ties and  placed  on  the  justices  an  ever-increasing 
burden  of  responsibility. ^  The  obligation  to  per- 
form unpaid  service  for  the  community  had  been 
recognised  from  time  immemorial  in  regard  to 
such  parochial  offices  as  those  of  the  church 
warden  and  the  constable,^  but  under  the  Tudors 


1 


Tawney,  Agrarian  Problem,  373. 
2  Webb,  Parish  and  County,  294.  ^  Webb,  op.  cit.,  15,  40. 

4S 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  IN  ENGLAND 

this  principle  received  an  extended  application 
in  connection  with  county  government.  There  are 
numbers  of  proclamations  which  show  how  ear- 
nestly the  Government  desired  that  the  gentry 
should  reside  on  their  estates.^  The  number  of 
manor  houses,  which  had  no  military  character, 
though  they  were  often  protected  by  a  moat,  are 
monuments  which  show  that  a  large  measure  of 
success  was  attained.  There  were  undoubtedly 
wastrels  among  these  landed  men  who  were  of 
little  good  either  to  themselves  or  to  their  neigh- 
bours; but  an  extraordinarily  high  sense  of  duty, 
both  to  their  posterity  and  to  the  public,  became 
traditional  among  them  as  a  class.  It  was  their 
ambition  to  hand  on  their  estate  improved  to  a 
son;  and  the  desire  to  found  a  family  and  to 
provide  for  its  prosperity  in  the  future,  was 
the  motive  which  led  to  the  introduction  of  new 
methods  of  land  management,  and  to  agricultural 
progress. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  desire  to  attain  to  status 
in  the  management  of  county  affairs,  was  an  am- 
bition that  was  widely  cherished  through  the 
class,  and  made  men  eager  to  give  their  leisure  to 
public  duties.  The  Lords  Lieutenant  and  County 
Magistrates  were  men  who  were  entrusted  by 
the  Crown  to  organise  the  county  for  military 

*  Cunningham,  oy.  cit.y  ii,  105. 
43 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

purposes  and  for  the  punishment  of  crime.  The 
Council  exercised  an  effective  supervision,  and 
were  prompt  to  deal  severely  with  neglects; 
and  this  impressed  on  the  country  gentry,  as  a 
class,  a  strong  sense  of  duty  to  maintain  good 
order. 

As  owners  of  property  they  were  conscious  of  re- 
sponsibility, and  their  status  among  their  neigh- 
bours really  depended  on  their  readiness  to  under- 
take public  duties,  and  the  skill  with  which  they 
discharged  them:  they  were  the  chief  agents  on 
which  the  Crown  could  rely  for  securing  good 
government  within  the  realm;  and  they  also  took 
an  active  part  in  the  enterprises  which  led  to  the 
expansion  of  England.  Younger  sons,  who  had 
little  prospect  of  securing  a  maintenance  for  them- 
selves at  home,  had  enterprise  enough  to  attempt, 
with  some  of  the  family  dependents,  to  carve  out 
estates  in  lands  across  the  seas  and  thus  to  estab- 
lish plantations.  There  has  often  been  occasion  to 
dwell  on  the  defects  of  the  English  country  gentle- 
man, but  it  may  be  doubted  whether  there  has 
ever  been  a  body  of  wealthy  men  with  such  a 
deep  sense  of  the  responsibility  of  property,  and 
of  the  duty  of  managing  it  well.  Certainly  a 
strong  tradition  has  been  established  among  them 
as  to  the  obligation  of  a  leisured  class  to  expend 
time  and  trouble  voluntarily  over  public  service. 

44 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  IN  ENGLAND 

II.    THE   ADMINISTRATION   OF   A    CHRISTIAN 

REALM 

Since  there  was  so  little  attempt  to  separate 
the  religious  from  the  secular  aspects  of  national 
life,  it  was  natural  that  no  hard-and-fast  line 
should  be  drawn  between  the  organs  which  were 
primarily  concerned  with  the  one  and  those  which 
were  primarily  concerned  with  the  other.  In  the 
Middle  Ages  a  great  deal  of  the  work  of  civil  ad- 
ministration had  been  put  in  the  hands  of  ecclesi- 
astics, partly  because  they  were  more  competent 
than  other  men  to  discharge  the  delicate  duties  of 
diplomacy  and  to  be  entrusted  with  great  respon- 
sibilities; and  the  old  tradition  was  maintained  to 
a  certain  extent  after  the  Reformation,  especially 
in  the  time  of  Charles  I.  General  dissatisfaction 
was  expressed  at  the  way  in  which  the  King  placed 
ecclesiastics,  like  Laud  and  Williams,  in  civil 
offices ;  but  these  were  only  a  striking  example  of 
a  common  characteristic.  In  the  Elizabethan  pe- 
riod and  under  the  Personal  Monarchy,  the  ele- 
ments which  are  now  habitually  distinguished 
were  confused  in  the  Christian  realm,  as  then  con- 
ceived; the  religious  and  the  secular  were  blended, 
and  the  whole  realm  was  organised  with  the  view 
of  promoting  the  good,  religious,  political  and 
economic,  of  the  community.    Since  Church  and 

45 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

State  were  not  thought  of  as  distinct,  but  as  one 
community  in  two  aspects,  it  was  natural  that 
the  authorities  in  Church  and  State  should  co- 
operate for  the  common  weal,  and  should  try  to 
promote  it  by  any  means  that  lay  to  hand.  At 
the  centre  of  government,  where  supervision  was 
exercised  over  the  whole  realm,  clergy  and  laity 
might  be  called  upon  to  work  together  in  the 
King's  Council:  in  larger  areas,  such  as  the 
county,  the  civil  magistrate  was  the  effective 
authority,  though  bishops  and  archdeacons  had 
an  important  part  to  play;  while  in  smaller  areas, 
such  as  the  parish,  the  responsibility  rested  with 
the  constable  as  well  as  with  the  parish  priest; 
and  the  churchwardens  were  concerned  in  seeing 
that  the  national  life,  both  in  its  civil  and  in  its 
religious  aspect,  was  well  ordered. 

The  chief  administrative  difference  lay  in  the 
manner  in  which  the  different  authorities  could 
enforce  their  decisions;  the  civil  authorities  could 
of  course  fall  back  on  fine  and  imprisonment  and 
other  serious  punishments,  while  the  ecclesiasti- 
cal courts  were  for  the  most  part  only  able  to  im- 
pose spiritual  censures  on  the  laity,  though  heavy 
money  charges  might  occasionally  arise  in  connec- 
tion with  their  proceedings,  and  they  could  de- 
prive the  clergy  of  their  livings;  in  fact  the  differ- 
ence between  the  two  sets  of  authorities  might  be 

46 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  IN  ENGLAND 

indicated  by  saying  that  whereas  the  civil  power 
could  exercise  coercive  jurisdiction,  ecclesiastical 
authority  was  on  the  whole  restricted  to  moral 
suasion. 

One  of  the  most  noticeable  changes  of  the  Eliza- 
bethan period  was  that  which  was  carried  out  in 
regard  to  the  relief  of  the  poor.  The  great  social 
upheaval  which  accompanied  the  Reformation, 
and  the  stimulus  to  industrial  and  agricultural 
improvement  which  was  given  by  commercial  ex- 
pansion, resulted  in  a  dislocation  of  the  old  social 
order,  and  a  great  increase  of  pauperism.  The  old 
facilities  for  the  distribution  of  charity  no  longer 
existed,  and  the  alms  which  were  given  in  the  par- 
ish churches  were  not  adequate  to  meet  the  case. 
Drastic  Poor  Laws  were  passed,  and  a  new  system 
of  administering  poor  relief  was  brought  into 
operation,  and  entrusted  to  civil  authorities  who 
had  the  power  of  distraining  for  the  quota  at 
which  the  well-to-do  owners  and  occupiers  in  a 
parish  were  assessed.  The  administrative  change 
in  creating  civil  parishes,  for  the  administration 
of  funds  collected  under  compulsion,  had  very  im- 
portant after  results,  as  it  gave  the  right  to  certain 
persons  to  claim  relief  as  due  to  them  under  the 
law  of  the  land.  Had  the  administration  contin- 
ued under  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  with  a 

47 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

moral  and  not  a  legal  character,  this  claim  would 
not  have  been  set  up.  For  generations  it  gave  rise 
to  much  litigation,  in  attempts  to  establish  in 
different  cases  the  precise  locality  which  was  re- 
sponsible for  the  maintenance  of  some  particular 
persons;  and  in  the  period  of  distress,  which  arose 
in  connection  with  the  Industrial  Revolution,  this 
system  had  a  very  demoralising  effect  on  large 
sections  of  the  community  who  had  become  de- 
pendent on  State  aid.  These  ulterior  conse- 
quences could  not  of  course  be  foreseen;  and 
when  the  main  responsibility  was  transferred  to 
civil  authority,  scope  was  left  for  the  exercise  of 
Christian  charity  as  a  personal  thing  through  the 
old  ecclesiastical  channels.  The  alms  at  the  Com- 
munion continued  to  be  distributed  to  the  poor 
and  were  often  employed  to  give  additional  help 
to  those  who  were  not  wholly  dependent  on  relief. 
There  was  also,  in  the  later  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth century,  a  widely  diffused  readiness  to 
make  lasting  provision  for  certain  classes  of  the 
poor;  in  almost  every  parish  in  England,  charities 
were  founded  for  such  objects  as  providing  the 
necessitous  with  fuel  and  cloaks  in  winter,  for  the 
distributing  of  doles  of  bread,  for  erecting  alms- 
houses for  those  who  were  past  work,  or  for  pro- 
viding schools.  The  spirit  of  neighbourliness  and 
of  Christian  beneficence  as  a  personal  duty  con- 

48 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  IN  ENGLAND 

tinued  to  flourish,  even  after  the  parochial  duty 
to  maintain  the  poor  had  been  transferred  to  civil 
authority. 

It  was  thought  convenient  to  enforce  other 
duties,  which  were  mainly  political,  through  the 
ecclesiastical  administration.  The  institution  of 
Lent  was  one  that  had  given  rise  to  a  consider- 
able demand  for  fish,  and  there  was  some  fear 
at  the  time  of  the  Reformation  that  the  fishing 
trade  would  suffer  through  the  disuse  of  the 
practice  of  keeping  fish  days;  accordingly  statutes 
were  passed  in  Parliament  to  keep  up  the  tradi- 
tional habit  on  political  grounds;  the  fishing  in- 
dustry was  a  great  school  of  seamanship  and  sup- 
plied mariners  to  be  employed  in  the  defence  of 
the  realm  and  in  commerce;  the  decay  of  seaman- 
ship would  be  a  disaster  to  an  island  realm.  Since, 
however,  the  practice  had  had  an  ecclesiastical 
character  it  was  convenient  that  it  should  be 
maintained  by  ecclesiastical  authority.^  Laud's 
correspondence  shows  that  he  was  at  pains  to  en- 
force it  strictly,  and  did  not  readily  give  licenses 
to  those  who  desired  to  evade  the  restrictions  on 
their  diet.  Parliament  insisted  that  the  compli- 
ance with  this  order  had  no  religious  character, 
but  found  it  convenient  to  exercise  moral  pressure 

1  Cunningham,  op.  cit.,  ii,  72. 
49 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

on  the  public  through  ecclesiastical  administra- 
tion. 

Ecclesiastics  were  also  concerned  in  maintain- 
ing the  traditional  standard  of  duty  in  regard 
to  the  employment  of  money  and  the  getting 
of  gain.  Public  opinion,  at  the  close  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  had  become  very  lax;  and  under 
the  changed  circumstances  which  accrued  from 
the  large  importation  of  precious  metals  from  the 
New  World,  the  hardships  which  might  easily 
arise  in  old  days  in  connection  with  certain  forms 
of  bargains,  were  likely  to  be  rare.  The  old  dis- 
tinctions as  to  what  was  right  and  wrong  appeared 
to  be  untenable  or  idle,  but  Bishop  Andrews  ^ 
and  others  of  the  leading  clergy  adhered  to  them. 
How  far  there  were  systematic  attempts  to  en- 
force the  traditional  morality  in  the  ecclesiastical 
courts  2  it  is  impossible  to  say;  but  the  duty  of 
presenting  those  who  made  an  extortionate  use 
of  their  capital  is  laid  down  in  the  109th  Canon  of 
1604 ;  and  the  Statute  of  1624,  which  permitted  the 
taking  of  moderate  interest,  so  far  as  civil  author- 
ities were  concerned,  carefully  disclaimed  giving 
any  decision  in  regard  to  cases  of  conscience.  The 
sense  of  personal  duty,  in  regard  to  the  manner  in 

1  Cunningham,  op.  cit.,  ii,  153. 

2  One  case  is  recorded  at  Pickering  in  1600.  Yorkshire  Archceologi- 
cal  Journal,  xviii,  331. 

50 


CHURCH  AND  STATE   IN  ENGLAND 

which  money  was  employed,  was  not  allowed  to 
fall  out  of  sight  in  the  Stuart  times.  The  Council 
in  1622  1  took  a  very  decided  view  as  to  the  duty 

^  E.  M.  Leonard,  Early  History  of  English  Poor  Relief,  147.  The 
Council  writes  "to  call  before  yo"  such  clothiers  as  yo"  shall  thinke 
fitting  and  to  deale  effectually  w*^  them  for  the  imployment  of  such 
weavers,  spinners  and  other  persons  as  are  now  out  of  worke.  Where 
wee  maye  not  omitt  to  let  yo"  know  that  as  wee  have  imployed  o' 
best  endeavor^  in  favo'"  of  the  clothiers  both  for  the  vent  of  their 
cloth  and  for  moderation  in  the  price  of  wooll  (of  w^^  wee  hope  they 
shall  speedily  find  the  effects).  Soe  maye  wee  not  indure  that  the 
cloathiers  in  that  or  any  other  countie  should  att  their  pleasure  and 
w'^out  giving  knowledge  hereof  unto  this  Board,  dismisse  their 
worke-foelkes,  who  being  many  in  nomber  and  most  of  them  of  the 
poorer  sort  are  in  such  cases  likely  by  their  clamo"  to  disturbe 
the  quiet  and  governmente  of  those  parts  wherein  they  live.  And  if 
there  shalbe  found  greater  numbers  of  poore  people  then  the  clothiers 
can  reviue  and  imploy.  Wee  thinke  it  fitt  and  accordingly  require 
yo"  to  take  order  for  putting  the  statute  in  execution,  whereby  there 
is  provisione  made  in  that  behalfe  by  raising  of  publicke  stockes  for 
the  imployment  of  such  in  that  trade  as  want  worke.  Wherein  if  any 
clothier  shall  after  sufficient  warning  refuse  or  neglect  to  appeare 
before  yo"  or  otherwise  shall  obstinately  denie  to  yeeld  to  such  over- 
tures in  this  case  as  shalbe  reasonable  and  iust;  yo"  shall  take  good 
bonds  of  them  for  refusing  to  appeare  before  us  and  immediately 
certifie  their  names  unto  this  board." 

The  Council  also  say  the  woolgrowers  must  sell  their  wool  at  a 
moderate  price,  and  finish  up  with  the  statement  of  the  general 
principle  on  which  they  act.  "This  being  the  rule,"  they  say,  "by 
w<=^  both  the  woolgrower,  the  cloathier  and  merchant  must  be  gov- 
erned. That  whosoever  had  a  part  of  the  gaine  in  profitable  times 
since  his  Ma^^  happie  raigne  must  now  in  the  decay  of  Trade  .  .  . 
beare  a  part  of  the  publicke  losses  as  may  best  conduce  to  the 
good  of  the  publicke  and  the  maintenance  of  the  generall  trade. " 
Privy  Council  Register,  9th  Feb:  162i  The  ten  counties  to  which 
this  letter  was  sent  are  as  follows:  — 

Wilts.  Gloucester. 

Somerset.  Worcester. 

Dorset.  Oxford. 

Devon.  Kent. 

York.  Suffolk. 

Compare  also  Butler,  Victoria  County  History,  Gloucestershire,  ii,  159. 

51 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

of  capitalist  employers  in  times  of  bad  trade  to- 
wards those  whom  they  employed. 

It  has  been  the  fashion  to  treat  the  break-down 
of  the  Personal  Monarchy  under  the  Stuarts  as  a 
matter  of  temperament,  and  to  contrast  the  loy- 
alty which  was  evoked  by  Queen  Elizabeth  with 
the  unpopularity  of  James  and  the  suspicions 
aroused  by  Charles  I.  It  is  doubtless  true  that 
the  traits  of  personal  character  had  somewhat 
incidentally  contributed  to  the  downfall  of  the 
system.  But  these  trivialities  were  by  no  means 
the  sole  cause  of  the  collapse  of  the  Personal 
Monarchy.  The  system  of  rule  in  Church  and 
State  was  anomalous,  and  it  would  hardly  have 
been  possible  for  the  most  ingenious  statesmen  to 
continue  to  steer  the  ship  through  these  troubled 
waters  with  success;  indeed  it  may  be  urged  that 
there  were  some  aspects  of  national  life  in  which 
the  prosperity,  which  had  begun  under  Elizabeth, 
continued  to  make  further  progress  under  the 
Stuarts.  There  was  a  great  increase  of  national 
resources  of  every  kind ;  commerce  was  expanding, 
new  industries  were  being  developed,  and  pains 
were  being  taken  to  reclaim  large  areas  for  culti- 
vation and  to  improve  production  from  the  soil. 
The  problem  of  absorbing  the  poor  in  the  eco- 
nomic life  of  the  country  seems  to  have  been  prac- 

52 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  IN  ENGLAND 

tically  solved  for  the  time.  The  plantation  of  Ire- 
land had  gone  on  apace,  and  the  colonisation  of 
the  New  World  had  begun.  The  Personal  Mon- 
archy of  the  Stuarts  appeared  to  one  shrewd  ob- 
server, during  the  period  when  Charles  dispensed 
with  Parliament,  to  be  justifying  itself  in  England 
by  its  success,^  but  the  system  was  inherently  un- 
sound ;  it  had  no  real  stability  and  fell  to  pieces  as 
soon  as  it  was  openly  attacked  by  the  Scots.  The 
English  Personal  Monarchy  was  a  serious  attempt 
to  maintain  the  mediaeval  tradition,  but  to  render 
it  national,  and  to  organise  a  polity  in  which 
the  national  life,  economic  and  civil,  should  have 
a  religious  character  and  in  which  Christian 
principles  should  be  supreme;  yet  it  proved  to  be  a 
failure  in  practice,  for  it  is  impossible  to  continue 
to  coerce  a  free  people  even  for  their  own  good. 
From  whatever  point  of  view  the  system  was 
considered  it  seemed  to  be  utterly  indefensible  on 
grounds  of  principle. 

From  the  religious  standpoint  the  new  system 
was  condemned  for  reasons  that  were  very  similar 
to  those  which  had  been  alleged  so  effectively  in 
regard  to  the  Papacy.  The  ecclesiastical  courts 
were  the  special  object  of  attack;  they  seemed  to 
be  a  mere  travesty  of  a  spiritual  authority,  since 
they  were  quite  ineffective  in  putting  down  the 

^  Clarendon,  History  of  the  Rebellion,  i,  159. 

53 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

generally  admitted  disorders  of  the  Church.  On 
the  other  hand,  they  took  cognisance  of  all  sorts 
of  secular  matters,  such  as  the  promotion  of  the 
fishing  trade  and  the  proving  of  wills.  There  was 
ample  ground  for  contending  that  ecclesiastical 
discipline  had  become  completely  secularised,  and 
that  it  ought  to  be  brought  into  closer  accord  with 
the  religious  sentiment;  it  was  urged  that  this 
could  only  be  expected  if  the  ecclesiastical  tradi- 
tion were  still  further  modified  and  brought  into 
closer  accord  with  Scripture.  Rites  and  practices 
were  insisted  upon  by  ecclesiastical  authority  for 
which  no  definite  support  could  be  quoted  in  the 
written  Word,  even  if  they  were  not  actually  con- 
demned; whilst  scant  respect  was  shown  to  those 
who  scrupled  about  the  remnants  of  Popery  which 
had  not  been  purged  away. 

But  the  chief  ground  of  offence  lay  in  the  fact 
that  the  ecclesiastical  system  was  so  closely  de- 
pendent on  the  Crown.  Romanists  and  Noncon- 
formists alike  were  concerned  to  maintain  a  more  , 
complete  spiritual  independence,  and  to  insist 
that  the  Crown  could  only  have  a  subordinate 
place  in  a  Christian  polity.  The  position  in 
regard  to  national  religious  life,  which  had  been 
assumed  by  the  Crown,  however  it  might  be  safe- 
guarded and  explained,  was  so  unsatisfactory  to 
many  earnest  men  of  diverse  views  that  they 

54 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  IN  ENGLAND 

agreed  in  rejecting  the  English  Church  as  lacking 
in  spirituality. 

There  was  also  abundant  ground  for  complaint 
from  the  point  of  view  of  civil  and  constitutional 
lawyers.    Their  jealousy  was  roused  by  the  con- 
ferring of  offices  on  ecclesiastics,  as  well  as  by  the 
part  they  played  in  the  Councils  of  the  Realm. 
There  was  grave  doubt  as  to  the  constitutional 
character  of  the  Courts  of  the  Star  Chamber  and 
of  the  High  Commission;  they  were  represented 
as  fussy  and  unreasonable,  and  their  practices  as 
inconsistent   with   recognised   English   liberties. 
The    law  which  was  enforced    in   ecclesiastical 
courts  had  never  been  passed  by  Parliament;  and 
Englishmen  might  be  called  upon  to  answer  in 
regard  to  alleged  offences  which  were  unknown  to 
the  law  of  the  land.  The  records  of  St.  John's  par- 
ish at  Huntingdon  show  that  Oliver  Cromwell  ^ 
was  publicly  censured  and  subsequently  did  pub- 
lic penance;  but  unfortunately  we  are  left  without 
information  as  to  the  faults  with  which  he  was 
charged.  There  could,  however,  be  no  doubt  that 
there  were  hundreds  of  respectable  people  who  had 
some  cause  for  personal  resentment  when  the  Long 
Parliament  commenced  its  attack  on  the  Church. 

*  Oliver  Cromwell  was  publicly  censured  in  church  in  1621,  and 
he  did  public  penance  in  1628.  His  precise  offence  is  not  noted,  but 
at  the  latter  date  Laud  was  Archdeacon  of  Huntingdon,  and  there 
was  a  dispute  going  on  about  a  lectureship. 

55 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

The  most  effective  attack  on  the  government 
was  from  the  economic  side.  The  period  of  Per- 
sonal Monarchy  under  EHzabeth  and  the  Stuarts 
was  a  time  of  very  rapid  change.  Times  of  rapid 
change  may  be  periods  of  great  improvement, 
though  serious  evils  are  often  incidental  to  the 
transition.  The  government  endeavoured  to 
promote  improvement,  but  to  restrict  it  in  such 
a  fashion  that  the  incidental  evils  should  be 
reduced  to  a  minimum.  They  were  thus  laid 
open  to  criticisms  from  two  points  of  view. 
Complaint  might  be  alleged  of  the  hardships 
which  arose  through  the  draining  of  the  Fens  and 
the  progress  of  enclosure,  but  there  was  a  more 
general  outcry  against  attempts  to  regulate  prog- 
ress on  the  ground  that  they  hampered  it  unduly. 
It  was  constantly  said  that  steps  which  had  been 
taken  by  the  government  to  regulate  progress 
and  to  foster  it  were  not  really  beneficial,  but  re- 
stricted the  natural  growth.  Foreign  commerce 
was  almost  entirely  in  the  hands  of  regulated  com- 
panies which  had  obtained  concessions  for  carry- 
ing on  business  at  particular  points  in  foreign 
parts.  The  Merchant  Adventurers,  who  finally 
settled  at  Hamburg,  were  supposed  to  regulate 
the  export  of  cloth  to  the  chief  markets  of  the 
Continent  in  such  a  fashion  that  there  should  be  a 
steady  development  of  the  sale  abroad  at  remu- 

56 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  IN  ENGLAND 

nerative  prices.  They  were  meant  to  be  an  organ 
for  securing  healthy  conditions  for  the  manu- 
facture of  cloth  for  export.  James  I,  with  his 
Scottish  experience  of  national  trade,  had  viewed 
these  companies  with  suspicion;  and  though  they 
maintained  their  position,  complaints  were  fre- 
quently made,  both  by  the  manufacturers  whom 
they  were  supposed  to  assist,  and  by  the  inter- 
lopers and  independent  traders  who  were  de- 
prived of  opportunities  for  pushing  foreign  trade. 
Still  more  exception  was  taken  to  the  granting 
to  patentees  of  concessions  for  the  exclusive  right 
to  manufacture  some  marketable  article  of  gen- 
eral demand.  They  were  supposed  to  introduce 
the  best  methods,  to  maintain  a  high  quality  in  the 
wares,  and  to  give  favourable  conditions  to  the 
employees.  But  many  grievances  were  alleged 
both  by  the  consuming  public,  and  by  the  rivals 
who  were  restricted  from  entering  into  competi- 
tion. At  this  distance  of  time  it  is  impossible  to 
judge  each  case  on  its  merits,  and  it  is  at  least 
highly  probable  that  patents  were  sometimes  is- 
sued as  a  method  for  levying  a  form  of  indirect 
consumption;  but  a  question  of  principle  was 
involved  in  regard  to  economic  progress.  The 
Stuarts  had  aimed  at  healthy  progress  and  espe- 
cially at  minimising  the  fluctuations  of  trade, 
while  the  critics  took  their  stand  on  the  principle 

57 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

of  allowing  freedom  for  the  individual  to  employ 
his  capital  in  any  branch  of  industry  or  commerce 
he  preferred.  The  advocates  of  unfettered  pro- 
gress won  the  day,  and  the  capitalist  class  in  the 
towns,  especially  in  the  city  of  London,  were  the 
backbone  of  the  armed  resistance  to  Charles  I. 

III.    THE   RIGHT    TO    COERCE 

The  Personal  Monarchy  of  Elizabeth  and  the 
Stuarts  was  the  first  attempt  to  establish  a  Chris- 
tian polity  on  a  national  basis,  and  the  whole  cir- 
cle of  human  life  was  taken  into  account;  there 
was  no  attempt  to  pursue  religious  or  political  or 
economic  aims  to  the  exclusion  of  others.  The 
Crown  recognised  that  these  three  strands  were 
closely  intertwined.  In  some  ways  the  conditions 
under  which  this  experiment  was  made  were  fa- 
vourable. It  was  possible  for  the  Council  to  work 
by  means  of  existing  and  recognised  agencies, 
without  creating  a  new  system  in  Church  or  State. 
Conscious  efforts  were  made  to  maintain  old  tradi- 
tions, and  it  seemed  unnecessary  to  win  accept- 
ance for  any  new  theory  of  political  life  or  social 
duty.  Yet  even  under  these  circumstances  this 
national  Christian  polity  was  a  complete  failure; 
and  if  we  are  to  learn  from  experience  it  is  import- 
ant to  take  the  reasons  of  that  failure  to  heart. 
We  have  consciously  entered  on  a  democratic  era, 

58 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  IN  ENGLAND 

and  realise  that  improvement  in  Church  and  State 
can  only  be  effected  through  a  widely  diffused 
sense  of  duty  and  the  willing  co-operation  of  the 
citizens;  it  cannot  be  brought  about  by  coercion 
alone.  Coercion  may  be  exercised  by  a  personal 
monarch  who  claims  the  right  to  rule,  as  was 
done  by  Charles  I  and  his  council,  and  it  may  be 
extraordinarily  efficient,  as  it  has  proved  in  Ger- 
many, where  the  loyalty  of  the  people  has  rallied 
in  such  an  extraordinary  degree  to  support  the 
designs  of  the  Emperor.  The  right  to  rule  may 
also  be  claimed  by  a  triumphant  majority,  which 
insists  that  minorities  must  suffer  and  is  prepared 
to  enforce  its  will  ruthlessly;  but  there  can  be  no 
stability  in  a  community  where  there  is  constant 
submission  to  superior  force  and  where  civil  order 
does  not  justify  itself  by  public  opinion  or  rest  on 
popular  consent.  Civil  authority  is  much  less 
likely  to  commend  itself  in  attempting  to  promote 
the  common  good  than  in  prohibiting  and  putting 
down  obvious  wrong;  and  the  collapse  of  the  mon- 
archy of  Charles  I  is  a  warning  for  all  time.  It 
may  be  possible  to  levy  taxes  and  obtain  money 
for  objects  which  many  citizens  regard  as  of 
doubtful  utility,  but  they  will  not  willingly  alter 
their  own  habits  as  to  diet,  or  the  management  of 
their  own  affairs,  for  reasons  which  do  not  com- 
mend themselves  to  their  own  judgment.    They 

59 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

are  specially  sensitive  if  they  believe  that  the 
common  good  is  not  really  involved,  but  that 
their  interests  are  being  sacrificed  to  those  of  more 
favoured  individuals. 

The  aims  of  Elizabeth  and  the  Stuarts  were  for 
the  most  part  judicious.  History  has  failed  to 
justify  their  methods,  but  it  has  also  condemned 
their  opponents.  The  Nonconformists  of  the 
Elizabethan  era  were  deeply  attached  to  Calvin- 
ism, they  found  their  inspiration  in  their  belief  as 
to  personal  predestination  to  be  the  instrument  of 
carrying  out  God's  Will  here  and  of  sharing  in 
glory  hereafter.  The  unpopularity  of  the  Church 
of  England  in  religious  circles  in  the  early  seven- 
teenth century  was  due,  so  far  as  doctrine  is  con- 
cerned, to  her  unwillingness  to  accept  Calvinism; 
but  in  this  she  was  wise.  Calvinism  in  its  strict 
form  has  been  completely  outlived;  and  the  Chris- 
tian denominations,  which  originally  took  their 
stand  upon  it,  are  vying  with  each  other  in  dis- 
carding it.  The  Elizabethan  Nonconformists 
were  also  inclined  to  refuse  compliance  with 
usages  in  Christian  worship  for  which  no  warrant 
could  be  found  in  Holy  Writ;  they  hesitated 
about  lessons  from  the  Apocrypha,  the  keeping  of 
Christmas  Day,  and  the  use  of  organs;  but  their 
descendants  have  abandoned  that  principle,  and 
are  ready  to  employ  the  aids  to  worship  against 

60 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  IN  ENGLAND 

which  their  forefathers  protested  as  a  ground  of 
offence. 

There  was  a  general  agreement  in  the  Eliza- 
bethan period  that  there  ought  to  be  a  common 
order  of  service,  and  that  there  should  be  some 
safeguard  against  the  vagaries  of  Anabaptists. 
But  those  who  agreed  on  the  desirability  of  a  na- 
tional use  differed  greatly  in  regard  to  the  ques- 
tion as  to  what  that  common  order  should  be. 
The  compromise  which  was  embodied  in  the 
Booh  of  Common  Prayer  has  justified  itself  as  a 
common  order  for  the  nation,  both  at  the  time  at 
which  it  was  compiled,  and  in  subsequent  cen- 
turies as  well. 

Even  in  the  economic  regulation,  which  caused 
so  much  irritation,  the  critics  of  the  government 
have  been  condemned.  The  granting  of  conces- 
sions to  commercial  companies  was  dropped  for  a 
time  under  the  Council  of  State,  but  the  diflScul- 
ties  which  ensued  were  so  great  that  Cromwell 
revived  the  practice  of  authorising  such  compa- 
nies. The  main  lines,  by  which  the  Crown  had 
endeavoured  to  direct  economic  activities  so  as  to 
promote  the  power  of  the  nation,  were  acted  upon 
by  Parliament  after  the  Restoration;  and  the 
Council  gave  much  attention  to  the  founding  of 
factories  and  the  planting  of  new  colonies,  and 
thus  carried  out  the  schemes  for  expansion  which 

61 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

had  occupied  the  attention  of  James  and  Charles  I. 
In  all  these  matters  it  may  be  fairly  claimed  that 
the  aims  of  the  Stuart  Kings  and  their  advisers 
were  far-seeing,  and  that  their  critics  were  short- 
sighted and  concentrated  their  attention  unwisely 
on  immediate  interests. 

Modern  rulers,  who  disregard  this  warning  and 
make  fresh  attempts  to  coerce  free  persons  for  the 
common  good,  would  do  well  to  assure  themselves 
that  the  particular  projects  at  which  they  aim  are 
really  for  the  common  weal  and  that  their  action 
will  be  recognised  as  really  public-spirited.  They 
have  also  need  to  be  sure  that  the  agents  by  whom 
pressure  is  brought  to  bear  in  any  given  direction 
are  honest  and  tactful.  If  they  fail  in  either  re- 
spect their  schemes  are  sure  to  be  subjected  to 
criticism,  which  may  be  ill-natured  and  short- 
sighted, but  may  yet  appeal  sufficiently  to  the 
popular  imagination  to  render  their  schemes  un- 
workable and  to  baulk  their  endeavours  for  the 
public  good.  A  free  people  can  only  be  led,  and 
can  never  be  successfully  driven.  It  is  the  art 
of  leadership  to  convince  the  people  that  some 
scheme  of  policy  is  really  for  the  common  good, 
so  that  they  may  be  willing  to  comply  with  it  in 
spite  of  the  sacrifices  it  may  entail. 


Ill 

PRESBYTERIANISM  AND  THE  SUPREMACY 

OF  SCRIPTURE 

I.    THE   SCRIPTURAL  MODEL   OF   A   POLITY 

A  GENERATION  had  passed  away  after  the  time 
when  Henry  VIII  had  defied  the  authority  of  the 
Pope  (1533)  before  a  similar  change  occurred  in 
Scotland  (1560).  The  pent-up  forces  in  the  North- 
ern Kingdom  were  very  violent  when  once  they 
were  let  loose,  and  a  new  conception  of  a  reformed 
Christian  polity  had  taken  shape  under  the  guid- 
ing hand  of  John  Calvin  at  Geneva.  The  Refor- 
mation Movement  in  Scotland  was  a  veritable 
revolution,  since  it  was  a  conscious  repudiation  of 
the  past,  and  a  genuine  effort  to  introduce  some- 
thing that  was  wholly  new. 

The  aim  of  King  Henry  VIII  and  the  English 
Reformers  had  been  to  retain  as  much  as  possible 
of  the  mediaeval  tradition  of  a  Christian  polity, 
but  yet  to  build  it  on  a  national  basis,  and  to  use 
Scripture  as  a  test  which  should  show  what  ought 
to  be  discarded  as  unnecessary  in  a  Christian  com- 
munity. But  the  antagonism  to  the  old  order  in 
Scotland  was  much  more  intense;  there  was  no 

63 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

disposition  to  recognise  that  it  had  any  good 
about  it  at  all;  it  was  repudiated  as  a  mere  carica- 
ture of  what  a  Christian  polity  ought  to  be.  The 
parochial  system  had  not  been  of  such  long  stand- 
ing in  Scotland  as  in  England,  and  it  never 
attained  the  same  importance  in  the  religious 
life  of  the  country.  The  great  monastic  estab- 
lishments had  relatively  a  far  greater  importance 
in  Scotland  than  the  corresponding  institutions  in 
England;  and  the  monastic  ideal  appeared  to  be 
inconsistent  with  Scripture;  indeed  the  whole  eccle- 
siastical system,  with  its  approval  of  celibacy  and 
discrimination  in  regard  to  abstention  from  meats, 
came  under  St.  Paul's  condemnation  as  a  doctrine 
of  devils.^  The  English  Reformers  complained 
that  the  Mediseval  Church  had  failed  to  realise 
her  ideals;  but  the  Scottish  Reformers  insisted 
that  the  ideals  were  false  and  mistaken.  The  mon- 
asteries had  been  founded  for  the  pursuit  of  a 
religious  life  apart  from  the  world;  while  the  Scot- 
tish Reformers  demanded  that  the  religious  life 
should  be  lived  in  the  world,  and  that  religious 
institutions  should  thereby  render  secular  activi- 
ties completely  Christian.  The  Scottish  Reform- 
ers thanked  God  who  had  delivered  the  kingdom 
from  the  superstitions  of  the  Roman  Anti-Christ, 
and  enlightened  it  with  the  rays  of  His  own  light 

»  I  Tim.  IV,  1-3. 

64 


PRESBYTERIANISM  AND  SCRIPTURE 

(1572).^  It  was  their  endeavour  to  render  the 
breach  with  the  "synagogue  of  Satan"  as  com- 
plete as  possible. 

At  the  same  time  they  held  firmly  to  the  an- 
cient aim  of  establishing  and  maintaining  a  Chris- 
tian polity.  This  conception  had  dominated 
Christian  life  in  Europe  since  the  fall  of  the  pagan 
Empire;  and  it  came  into  fresh  prominence  in  the 
troublous  time  of  the  Reformation.  The  indi- 
vidual reformers  and  separate  congregations  felt 
their  helplessness:  it  was  only  as  organised  com- 
munities, maintaining  their  independence  of  the 
Papacy  and  the  secular  powers  it  could  put  in  mo- 
tion, that  the  reformers  could  hope  to  keep  alive 
the  light  of  the  gospel  in  the  world.  Just  as  Israel 
had  been  a  witness  for  true  religion  to  the  world, 
so  the  Scottish  Reformers  were  inspired  with  an 
enthusiasm  for  maintaining  a  national  testimony 
to  pure  Christianity.  The  Scottish  Estates  in  1572 
put  forward  a  formal  confession  of  the  national 
faith.  "Long  have  we  thirsted,"  they  say  in  the 
preface,  "dear  brethren,  to  have  notified  to  the 
"  world  the  sum  of  that  doctrine  which  we  profess, 
"and  for  the  which  we  have  sustained  infamy  and 
"danger:  but  such  has  been  the  rage  of  Satan 
"against  us  and  against  Christ  Jesus  His  eternal 

1  Dunlop,  Collections  of  Confessions  of  Faith,  ii,  14. 

65 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 


« 


Verity  lately  now  again  born  among  us,  that 
to  this  day  no  time  has  been  granted  unto  us  to 
clear  our  consciences  as  most  gladly  we  would 
have  done;  for  how  we  have  been  tossed  here- 
tofore, the  most  part  of  Europe,  as  we  suppose, 
does  understand."  ^  They  anxiously  insisted  that 
Scripture  was  the  supreme  standard  by  which 
they  had  been  guided  and  to  which  they  desired  to 
conform  in  any  point  where  they  might  have  mis- 
apprehended it.  *'We  have  chief  respect  to  our 
weak  and  infirm  brethren,  to  whom  we  would 
communicate  the  bottom  of  our  hearts,  lest  that 
they  be  troubled  or  carried  away  by  diversity  of 
rumours,  which  Satan  spreads  against  us  to  the 
defeating  of  this  our  most  godly  enterprise;  pro- 
testing that  if  any  man  will  note  in  this  our 
confession  any  article  or  sentence  repugnant  to 
God's  Holy  Word,  that  it  would  please  him  of 
his  gentleness  and  for  Christian  charities'  sake 
to  admonish  us  of  the  same  in  writing;  and  we 
upon  our  honour  and  fidelity,  by  God's  grace  do 
promise  unto  him  satisfaction  from  the  mouth 
of  God,  that  is  from  His  Holy  Scriptures  or  else 
reformation  of  that  which  he  shall  prove  to  be 
amiss."  The  necessity  of  the  combined  action 
of  king  and  people  was  further  accentuated  by  the 
Band  of  Maintenance  in  1588,  in  which  the  King, 

^  Dunlop,  Collection  of  Confessions,  ii,  15. 

66 


<( 
<( 
<< 
(( 
({ 
<i 
<( 
<( 
it 
it 
it 
it 

a 
<i 
it 


(( 
<< 
(< 


PRESBYTERIANISM  AND  SCRIPTURE 

**the  estates  and  persons  of  all  ranks  and  degrees 

"combined  themselves,  to  join  and  concur  with 

"the  whole  forces  of  our  friends  and  favourers, 

"against  whatsoever  foreign  or  intestine  powers  of 

"Papists  or  their  partakers,  that  shall  arrive  or 

"arise  within  this  island  or  any  part  thereof;  .  .  . 

"to  join  and  hold  hand  to  the  exclusion  of  what- 

"  soever  means  or  order  shall  be  thought  meet  by 

"His  Majesty  and  Council  for  the  suppressing  of 

"Papistry,  the  promotion  of  true  religion,  and 

settling  His  Highness'  estate  and  obedience  in 

all  the  quarters  and  corners  of  this  realm:  to 

expose  and  hazard  our  lives,  lands,  and  goods, 

"and  whatsoever  means  that  God  has  lent  us, 

"in  the  defence  of  the  said  true  and  Christian  re- 

"ligion  and  of  His  Majesty's  person  and  estate." 

The  consciousness  of  a  national  religion  and  a 

national  testimony  for  scriptural  truth  has  sunk 

very  deeply  into  succeeding  generations  of  the 

Scottish  people. 

In  endeavouring  to  carry  out  this  aim  John 
Knox  and  the  Scottish  Reformers  consciously 
adopted  the  model  of  a  Christian  polity  which  had 
been  already  estabhshed  at  Geneva.  Geneva  was 
a  city  state  and  some  modification  was  needed  to 
adapt  the  institutions  of  a  Christian  municipality 
to  a  Christian  realm.    Scottish  Presbyterianism 

*  Dunlop,  Collection  of  Confessions,  ii.  Band  of  Maintenance,  109. 

67 


1 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

was  the  outcome  of  this  endeavour  to  build  a 
scriptural  polity,  not  merely  on  a  municipal,  but 
on  a  national  basis.  And  as  the  Presbyterian  sys- 
tem took  a  firmer  hold  and  gradually  extended 
over  the  whole  of  Scotland,  it  did  much  to  super- 
sede tribal  organisation  and  local  patriotism  and 
to  diffuse  and  intensify  conscious  national  life. 
The  Scottish  Christian  polity  was  an  expansion  of 
that  of  Geneva,  as  the  English  national  polity 
professed  to  be  the  maintenance,  in  a  smaller 
sphere  and  under  a  new  administration,  of  the 
institutions  of  Christendom. 

In  breaking  with  the  past  and  endeavoiu-ing  to 
institute  a  purely  scriptural  polity,  it  was  inevi- 
table that  great  stress  should  be  laid  upon  the  Old 
Testament  as  a  source  of  instruction  in  the  Di- 
vine Will  for  a  well-ordered  social  life.  From  the 
New  Testament  information  could  be  gleaned 
about  Christian  organisation  and  worship  as 
constituted  for  all  times  in  the  Apostolic  age;  and 
this  was  the  warrant  for  ecclesiastical  organisation 
in  Kirk  Sessions  and  other  ecclesiastical  courts, 
and  for  the  Book  of  Common  Order;  but  the 
Church  in  Apostolic  times  had  no  status  in  the 
civil  society  of  the  time;  and  the  New  Testament, 
although  it  insists  on  the  personal  duty  of  civil 
obedience,  has  little  guidance  to  give  about  the 

68 


PRESBYTERIANISM  AND  SCRIPTURE 

constitution  of  Christian  States.  The  Scottish 
Reformers  traced  the  analogy  between  the  realm 
of  David  and  his  successors,  and  that  of  the  Scot- 
tish Crown.  They  looked  to  the  Old  Testament  as 
giving  an  example  of  a  definitely  ordered  mon- 
archy; and  they  took  it  as  containing  a  code  of 
morality,  which  should  be  enforced  in  Christian 
States  for  all  time.  Hence  they  had  little  diffi- 
culty about  matters  that  had  troubled  the  con- 
sciences of  many  other  Christians ;  they  made  no 
scruple  in  regard  to  the  employment  of  force 
by  public  authority  on  behalf  of  the  community. 
They  recognised  that  the  magistrate  was  empow- 
ered to  inflict  corrective  punishment  by  fine  and 
imprisonment  or  even  to  enforce  the  penalty  of 
death  on  the  murderer  or  witch;  they  regarded 
him  as  God's  minister  for  the  punishment  of  evil 
doers.  The  Old  Testament  was  full  of  instances 
where  the  people  of  God  went  forth  to  war;  and 
the  Covenanters  had  scriptural  warrant  for  ap- 
pealing to  the  ordeal  of  battle  in  defence  of  their 
religion,  and  as  a  means  of  diffusing  it.  This  in- 
sistence on  the  continued  validity  of  the  Old 
Testament  as  a  code  for  Christian  times  explains 
the  attachment  of  the  Scots  to  the  principle  of 
monarchy,  and  their  quarrel  with  the  Independ- 
ents and  the  Arn^y;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
led  to  an  acceptance  of  the  Jewish  morality  as 

69 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

adequate,  and  left  little  incentive  for  men  to 
attempt  to  rule  their  own  lives  personally  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  higher  morality  which  is  dis- 
tinctive of  Christ  and  His  teaching.  A  polity  in 
which  Old  Testament  morality  is  accepted  and 
enforced  may  yet,  as  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
teaches  us,  be  defective  from  the  Christian  point 
of  view. 

The  chief  point,  in  regard  to  which  the  current 
morality  in  Christian  communities  during  the 
Middle  Ages  had  advanced  beyond  that  of  con- 
temporary Judaism,  was  in  regard  to  the  taking  of 
interest  for  money  lent.  The  Jews  had  full  scrip- 
tural authority  for  lending  money  on  interest  to 
men  of  other  races  than  their  own,  and  this  per- 
mission seemed  to  show  that  the  taking  of  interest 
was  not  wrong  in  itself,  but  only  under  certain 
conditions.  The  feeling  against  the  taking  of  in- 
terest, which  is  expressed  in  the  Old  Testament 
and  which  is  common  to  many  moralists,  had 
been  taken  more  seriously  by  Christians.  Usury 
was  regarded  as  a  practice  which  involved  a  sordid 
making  of  gain  at  another's  expense,  and  which 
therefore  was  unchristian.  Much  careful  casuis- 
try was  devoted  to  discriminating  between  the 
kinds  of  bargain  by  which  men  might  be  tempted 
to  place  themselves  in  this  unchristian  relation 

70 


PRESBYTERIANISM  AND  SCRIPTURE 

to  their  neighbours;  and  the  conduct  of  moneyed 
men,  who  entered  into  hard  bargains,  was  depre- 
cated.   In  the  sixteenth  century  great  difficulty 
arose  in  applying  the  old  distinctions,  and  they 
seemed  to  be  pedantries.    The  practical  question, 
which  presented  itself  to  the  honourable  business 
man,  was  that  of  the  amount  of  interest  which  it 
was  fair  to  take.   It  was  in  this  that  he  saw  a  pos- 
sibility of  oppression  under  the  changed  circum- 
stances of  his  day.   Geneva  was  a  great  commer- 
cial city,  and  Calvin  with  some  hesitation  refused 
to  condemn  the  taking  of  interest  as  such,  and 
thus  opened  the  way  for  the  lending  of  money  and 
trading  on  borrowed  capital  to  be  recognised  as 
permissible  in  a  Christian  community.  ^   By  this 
decision  he  did  much  to  reconcile  those  who  were 
engaged  in  mercantile  callings  with  Christian  mo- 
rality: it  no  longer  seemed  to  them  pedantic  and 
unpractical;  but  on  the  other  hand  the  specific 
character  of  Christian  teaching  in  regard  to  the 
use  of  money  had  disappeared.    The  Calvinists 
adopted  a  standard  of  honesty  which  appealed  to 
upright  men,  whatever  faith  they  might  profess; 
and  no  serious  attempt  was  made  to  form  a  defi- 
nite public  opinion  as  to  Christian  duty  in  the  use 
of  the  advantages  and  powers  which  money  gives. 
Calvin  had  not  put  forward  any  positive  doctrine; 

1  Cunningham,  Growth  oj  English  Industry  and  Commerce,  ii,  155. 

71 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

but  he  had  undermined  the  restrictions  which  had 
hitherto  been  placed,  from  the  religious  stand- 
point, on  the  employment  of  capital,  so  that  the 
capitalist  now  felt  free  to  use  his  money  in  the 
fashion  that  brought  him  most  personal  gain. 

The  most  remarkable  feature  of  the  new  polity 
was  the  reassertion  of  spiritual  independence,  and 
the  consequent  claim  of  the  supremacy  of  spiritual 
authorities  over  the  civil  powers.  The  ministers 
took  the  attitude  of  Nathan  and  the  Hebrew 
prophets  towards  David  and  the  Jewish  kings. 
James  VI  was  reminded  that  he  was  only  "  God's 
"silly  vassal,"  while  the  ministers  were  the  inter- 
preters and  spokesmen  of  the  Word  of  God.  Their 
office  gave  them  an  authority,  in  interpreting  the 
Divine  Will,  which  no  secular  power  had  a  right  to 
assume.  This  was  an  essential  element  in  the  sys- 
tem. The  supremacy  of  the  Bible  implied  the 
supremacy  of  those  who  were  its  recognised  inter- 
preters. This  claim  gave  rise  to  strained  relations 
in  Geneva  between  Calvin  and  Beza  on  the  one 
hand  and  the  municipal  authorities  on  the  other: 
in  Scotland  it  found  expression  in  the  national 
Covenant.  To  Englishmen  generally  it  was  an 
intense  surprise  to  find  that  the  claim  of  spiritual 
independence  for  the  ministers  was  maintained 
as    strenuously    by    sixteenth    century    Presby- 

72 


PRESBYTERIANISM  AND  SCRIPTURE 

terians  as  by  the  adherents  of  the  Roman  See. 
The  Hmitations  of  Scottish  loyalty  to  the  Crown, 
and  the  readiness  of  the  Scots  to  take  up  arms 
against  the  Crown  were  to  them  incomprehen- 
sible ;  while  after  the  Restoration,  the  conscious 
objection  of  the  Covenanters  to  recognise  an  un- 
covenanted  king  rendered  them  under  suspicion 
of  possible  treason,  in  the  same  way  as  this  sus- 
picion attached  to  the  Jesuits  and  thorough-going 
Papists.  The  suspicion  may  have  been  wholly 
unjustified  and  the  action  to  which  it  gave  rise  is 
deeply  to  be  regretted;  but  we  need  not  on  that 
account  ignore  the  reasons  which  led  responsible 
authorities  to  employ  the  methods  of  barbarism 
in  trying  to  stamp  out  a  subtle  danger  to  the 
community.  Nor  was  this  claim  allowed  to  be 
forgotten:  the  principle  of  spiritual  independence 
was  asserted  by  many  acts  of  resistance  to  the 
alleged  encroachments  of  civil  authority  before 
the  disruption  of  the  Scottish  Church  in  1843.^ 

II.    PRESBYTERIAN    THEOCRACY 

The  critics  of  the  ecclesiastical  system  in  Eng- 
land were  much  dissatisfied  with  the  laxity  of 
the  spiritual  discipline  which  was  exercised  in  the 
ecclesiastical  courts,   but  this   complaint   could 

»  G.  W.  T.  Omond,  The  Lord  Advocates  of  Scotland,  64  and  68, 
2nd  Series. 

73 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

not  be  made  against  the  discipline  by  Kirk  Ses- 
sions, Presbyteries,  and  Synods  which  were 
erected  in  Scotland.  The  function  which  these 
courts  sought  to  discharge  was  that  of  preserving 
the  Christian  polity  from  scandal.  Anything 
which  contaminated  the  religious  life  of  the  com- 
munity marred  its  effectiveness  as  a  testimony  to 
the  world.  Since  the  celebration  of  Mass  had 
come  to  be  regarded  as  a  blasphemous  travesty  of 
Christian  rites  and  a  sinful  act  of  idolatry,  the 
Reformers  felt  that  they  could  not  tolerate  it  even 
as  an  exception,  without  tainting  the  life  of  the 
whole  community.  On  similar  grounds  they  felt 
that  they  were  lacking  as  a  community  in  respect 
to  the  ordinances  of  God  if  they  suffered  a  witch 
to  live.  The  strictness  of  the  Jewish  Code  in  main- 
taining the  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath  was  regarded 
as  an  injunction  for  all  time  as  to  the  manner  in 
which  the  Lord's  Day  should  be  respected;  and 
strenuous  efforts  were  made  to  prevent  the  scan- 
dal of  desecration.  Frequent  Acts  of  Assembly 
were  passed  against  promiscuous  dancing  and  lib- 
erty of  conduct  which  were  unseemly  in  a  godly 
community;  and  every  effort  was  made  to  put 
evildoers  to  public  shame,  as  a  means  of  main- 
taining the  standard  of  conduct  which  should  be 
expected  from  Christian  men.  The  successful 
enforcement  of  an  external  code  led  to  the  f orma- 

74 


PRESBYTERIANISM  AND  SCRIPTURE 

tion  of  very  definite  habits  of  mind  in  regard  to 
Christian  duty;  but  it  left  room,  as  there  had  been 
in  the  time  of  Our  Lord,  for  formal  compliance 
with  an  external  standard  apart  from  any  deep 
sense  of  personal  duty. 

Just  because  there  was  in  Scotland  such  a 
strong  sense  of  Christian  life  as  organised  in  a  com- 
munity, there  was  also  a  widespread  recogni- 
tion of  the  duties  of  the  community;  and  certain 
activities,  which  were  left  in  England  to  be  dealt 
with  in  a  more  haphazard  fashion,  were  system- 
atically organised  as  obligations  to  be  discharged 
out  of  ecclesiastical  resources. 

Of  these  the  most  important  was  the  system  of 
parochial  schools;  a  good  deal  had  been  done  for 
popular  education  in  the  sixteenth  century  by 
some  of  the  Scottish  Bishops;  but  it  was  owing  to 
John  Knox  that  provision  was  made,  out  of  the 
remnants  of  Church  property,  which  were  rescued 
from  private  hands  at  the  Reformation,  for  estab- 
lishing a  school  in  every  parish.  The  education 
which  was  thus  given  was  definitely  religious  in 
character,  and  it  was  designed  to  fit  the  child  for 
all  the  duties  of  life  here,  and  as  a  preparation  for 
life  hereafter.  It  was  not  till  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury that  the  duty  of  the  community  as  a  whole 
towards  the  up-bringing  of  children  was  so  gener- 

75 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

ally  recognised  in  England,  and  then  it  was  un- 
dertaken partly  by  localities  independently,  and 
partly  by  voluntary  societies,  though  these  efforts 
were  at  first  supplemented  and  subsequently  di- 
rected and  controlled  by  the  State. 

The  Christian  duty  of  relieving  the  aged  and 
the  impotent  poor  was  also  systematically  organ- 
ised and  not  left  to  individual  tender-heartedness. 
The  collections  at  church  doors  supplied  the 
funds,  which  were  applied  to  this  purpose,  and 
continued  to  be  regarded  as  sufficient  till  the  time 
of  the  Industrial  Revolution,  though  in  some 
cases  it  was  found  necessary  to  augment  the  col- 
lections by  means  of  assessment.  The  power  to 
assess  was  given  by  an  Act^  of  James  VI,  but  a 
hundred  and  twenty  years  later  there  were  only 
three  parishes  where  these  powers  had  been 
brought  into  operation,  and  the  number  had  risen 
to  about  ninety  in  1800;  ^  throughout  the  country 
generally  the  church  collections  sufficed,  till  the 
whole  system  was  hastily  condemned  and  swept 
away  in  1845.^  These  funds  were  administered  by 
the  parochial  ministers  and  elders,  though  in  some 
towns,  where  more  than  one  parish  had  been  cre- 
ated, the  practice  was  adopted  of  administration 

*  Ads  of  Parliament  of  Scotland,  1579,  c.  12. 
2  Omond,  op.  cit.,  133. 
'  Ibid.,  op.  cit.,  133-44. 

76 


PRESBYTERIANISM  AND  SCRIPTURE 

by  the  magistrates.^  The  lines  on  which  relief 
was  given  were  very  similar  to  those  which  are 
advocated  by  Charity  Organisation  Societies  in 
the  present  day.  It  was  the  main  principle  to  re- 
fuse relief  to  the  undeserving,  and  thus  if  possible 
to  force  the  pauperised  to  become  useful  members 
of  society.  Dr.  Chalmers  and  the  other  advocates 
of  retaining  the  Scottish  system  pointed  to  the 
pauperising  effect  of  the  Poor  Law  as  adminis- 
tered in  England,  and  were  anxious  that  their  own 
country  should  be  kept  free  from  the  "moral  lep- 
"rosy"  2  which  the  system  engendered.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  was  a  widespread  sense  that  the 
Scottish  parochial  relief  was  inadequate,  so  that 
hardship  was  inflicted  on  the  deserving  poor;  and 
at  the  time  of  the  Industrial  Revolution  the 
Scottish  system  seemed  quite  ineffective  for 
dealing  with  the  masses  of  the  population  who 
were  congregated  in  great  towns.  Carlyle  spoke 
of  the  conditions  which  had  grown  up  as  "a 
"moral  gangrene,"  and  insisted  that  "Scotland 
"must  have  a  Poor  Law  if  Scotland  is  not  to 
"be  a  by-word  among  the  nations."  ^    It  need 


*  The  city  of  Edinburgh  formed  one  parish  before  the  Reforma- 
tion, but  it  was  divided  up  into  four  parishes  shortly  afterwards. 
The  Church  which  had  been  used  by  Franciscans  became  a  Parish 
Church  and  the  Collegiate  Church  of  Holy  Trinity  another. 

'  Chalmers'  Political  Economy,  5. 

'  Past  and  Present,  i,  i. 

77 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

cause  no  surprise  that  the  advocates  for  dealing 
with  the  problem  on  the  lines  which  had  been 
adopted  in  the  recently  reformed  Poor  Law  in 
England,  should  have  gained  the  day;  but  it  is  a 
matter  of  interest  that  the  systematic  organisa- 
tion of  Poor  Relief  as  a  Christian  duty  should 
have  been  successfully  carried  on  for  so  long  and 
that  such  a  weight  of  evidence  was  adduced  as  to 
the  possibility  of  adapting  it  to  the  requirements 
of  society  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury.^ 

There  was,  however,  one  serious  disadvantage 
in  connection  with  the  Scottish  system;  it  left 
little  scope  for  the  exercise  of  personal  charity  to 
poor  neighbours.  Suspicion  was  rife  that  many 
of  the  benefactions  which  had  been  made  in 
mediaeval  times  were  due  to  superstitious  mo- 
tives and  a  readiness  to  try  and  compound  every 
sin  which  weighed  upon  the  conscience  by 
monetary  gifts  to  the  Church  or  to  the  poor. 
*' Alms-giving  is  papistry"  —  is  a  terse  expression 
which  embodies  a  feeling  that  was  widely  diffused; 
and  if,  as  was  generally  supposed,  the  Ministers 
and  Elders  provided  for  all  the  deserving  poor, 
there  could  be  no  Christian  duty  to  encourage  the 

1  The  great  assertion  of  the  principle  of  spiritual  independence 
and  the  consequent  division  of  the  Scottish  Church  by  the  Disruption 
in  1843  was  at  least  one  of  the  reasons  which  made  it  impossible  to 
carry  out  the  necessary  changes  in  the  system  of  parochial  relief. 

78 


PRESBYTERIANISM  AND  SCRIPTURE 

undeserving  in  their  idleness.  The  Christian  con- 
science was  satisfied  with  organised  Christian  ac- 
tion and  was  not  stimulated  to  supplement  it;  and 
there  is  little  sign  in  Scotland  of  the  foundation 
of  parochial  charities,  such  as  were  established  in 
such  numbers  in  England  during  the  seventeenth 
century.  The  great  merchants  or  tradesmen  left 
money  for  the  decayed  members  of  their  own  com- 
pany or  trade,  or  for  hospitals  in  a  town,  but  it 
is  not  easy  to  trace  benefactions  for  the  poor  of 
a  parish.  The  most  important  Edinburgh  charity 
of  that  date  was  founded  by  George  Heriot,  a 
Scottish  goldsmith,  who  had  settled  in  London, 
and  his  plans  were  carried  out  after  his  death 
through  the  agency  of  the  Dean  of  Rochester. 

The  ministers  were  ready  to  take  their  part  in 
advocating  conduct  that  should  be  for  the  mate- 
rial welfare  of  the  community;  but  the  circum- 
stances of  Scotland  were  very  different  from  those 
of  England,  and  the  duties  which  were  demanded 
of  the  good  citizen  were  quite  distinct  in  the  two 
countries.  Scottish  trade  was  hampered  by  the 
efforts  of  the  Stuart  Kings  to  carry  out  one  policy 
for  both  the  realms.^  Scottish  trade  interests  had 
been  distinct  from  those  of  England,  and  serious 
loss  occurred  when  they  were  subordinated  to  the 

^  T.  Keith,  Commercial  Relations  of  England  and  Scotland,  16. 

79 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

policy  which  suited  the  sovereign  of  the  kingdom. 
It  was  impossible  to  regard  the  Crown  as  the 
guardian  of  the  material  interests  of  the  Northern 
Kingdom,  and  loyalty  to  the  Crown  was  not  a 
duty  which  appealed  to  the  patriotism  of  Scottish 
merchants.  The  interests  of  a  King  of  Great 
Britain,  and  of  Scotland  as  a  community,  were  dis- 
tinct. On  the  whole,  too,  Scotland  was  standing 
on  the  defensive  and  endeavouring  to  hold  its 
own,  not  only  against  the  continental  monarchies 
but  against  submission  to  English  institutions. 
The  country  had  neither  the  opportunity  nor  the 
resources  for  making  considerable  attempts  at 
plantation  in  the  New  World,  and  hence  the  sense 
of  mission  through  national  expansion  was  unde- 
veloped. The  chief  need  of  the  Scottish  nation 
was  the  development  of  Scottish  resources,  and 
the  formation  and  investment  of  capital  so  as  to 
give  employment  to  the  poor.  Those  who  used 
their  means  in  this  way  were  regarded  as  not  only 
contributing  directly  to  the  public  good,  but  as 
exercising  the  virtue  of  charity  in  the  wisest  way. 
The  man  who  uses  his  wealth  to  employ  labour  is 
providing  relief  for  the  poor  in  a  form  in  which 
they  can  receive  it  with  self-respect.  At  the  time 
of  the  Lancashire  cotton  famine,  John  Bright,  in- 
stead of  contributing  to  the  relief  funds,  kept  his 
works  going  at  an  enormous  loss,  since  this  was 

80 


PRESBYTERIANISM  AND  SCRIPTURE 

the  way  in  which  he  believed  he  could  do  most  to 
prevent  and  relieve  distress.  This  principle  was 
clearly  recognised  in  Scotland,  and  hence  it  came 
to  be  felt  that  the  capitalist  who  employed  labour 
was  fulfilling  his  duty  of  promoting  the  welfare 
of  the  community.  The  possibility  of  a  conflict 
between  public  and  private  interest  in  matters 
of  industry  and  trade  had  so  far  fallen  into  the 
background  that  it  was  no  longer  regarded  as 
a  practical  thing  of  which  account  had  to  be 
taken. 

The  duty  of  the  citizen  seemed  to  lie  in  the  cul- 
tivation of  the  prudential  virtues  of  diligence  in 
business,  and  avoidance  of  waste  and  idleness  as 
the  fruitful  cause  of  sin.  This  closely  reflects  the 
sense  of  duty  portrayed  in  the  Book  of  Proverbs^ 
and  the  Presbyterians  were  satisfied  to  enjoin 
these  Old  Testament  virtues. 

There  were,  however,  serious  defects  in  this  con- 
ception of  morality,  and  these  came  out  in  the  long 
run.  The  Pope's  laws,  which  had  endeavoured  to 
guard  against  the  extortionate  use  of  capital,  were 
waived  aside  as  pedantic  and  superstitious  re- 
strictions; and  the  welfare  of  the  community 
was  not  conceived  in  such  a  form  that  the  enter- 
prising and  industrious  citizen  was  likely  to  do  it 
any  injury.    The  private  conscience  of  the  most 

81 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

scrupulous  man  was  likely  to  be  satisfied  if  he  felt 
that  in  the  use  he  was  making  of  his  capital  he  was 
promoting  the  welfare  of  the  community,  while 
incidentally  he  received  private  gain.  Neither 
from  the  religious  nor  from  the  political  side  was 
there  any  encouragement  or  help  to  the  religious 
man  to  consider  carefully  whether  his  capital  was 
being  employed  in  such  a  fashion  as  to  be  oppres- 
sive or  extortionate.  Calvin's  doctrine  had  tended 
in  favor  of  free  play  for  capital;  and  free  play  for 
capital  appeared  to  justify  itself,  in  the  conditions 
of  Scotland  in  the  seventeenth  century,  as  an 
excellent  method  of  bringing  about  the  public 
good. 

The  attitude  of  mind  which  was  current  in  Pres- 
byterian Scotland  in  the  seventeenth  century  is 
illustrated  by  the  institutions  which  grew  up  dur- 
ing that  period.  Capital  was  much  needed  for  the 
development  of  Scottish  resources,  and  every  en- 
couragement was  given  so  as  to  enable  those  who 
were  willing  to  undertake  the  risk  of  extractive 
industry,  to  secure  a  permanent  supply  of  labour. 
Under  the  encouragement  given  by  the  State  in 
a  Christian  community,  a  new  species  of  slavery 
grew  up,  which  involved  very  serious  disabilities 
both  as  to  freedom  of  movement  and  legal  status. 
By  an  act  of  1606  ^  masters  of  all  collieries  and  of 

1  Statute  1606,  c.  10. 
82 


<< 


<< 


PRESBYTERIANISM  AND  SCRIPTURE 

salt  pans  "were  permitted  to  apprehend  all  vaga- 
"  bonds  and  sturdy  beggars  to  be  put  to  labour," 
and  these  were  not  allowed  to  be  hired  to  other 
employment  so  long  as  this  master  required  their 
services.  In  1672  these  powers  were  extended  to 
others  who  have  manufactures^  in  the  king- 
dom "  so  that  they  were  able  to  "seize  upon  any 
"vagabonds  or  beggars  wherever  they  could  find 
"  them."  These  employers  had  the  same  power  to 
correct  their  labourers  and  to  enjoy  the  benefit  of 
their  work  in  the  same  way  as  those  who  held  the 
position  of  Master  of  a  House  of  Correction.  The 
growth  of  a  form  of  capitalist  slavery  in  Scotland 
was  all  the  more  remarkable  as  feudal  serfdom 
had  disappeared  in  that  country  at  a  very  early 
date;  though  the  new  slavery  gave  an  excuse  for 
our  unsuccessful  attempt  to  revive  the  old  serf- 
dom.^  The  latest  known  attempt  to  establish  a 

1  Statute  1672,  c.  11. 

2  There  was  an  attempt  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century 
to  treat  certain  fishermen  in  the  north  of  Scotland  as  serfs.  Reid, 
Beverage  and  some  fishermen  upon  Don  having  entered  into  a 
tack  with  the  Laird  of  Woodney,  they  were  also  claimed  by  Forbes  of 
Foveran  on  this  ground  that  they  were  born  on  his  land,  and  so  were 
as  much  glebce  addicti,  and  astricted  to  live  there,  as  colliers  and  salt- 
ers.  (31  July,  1696.)  Foveran  contended  that  they  were  born  on  his 
ground  and  by  the  "  custom  of  the  coast  side  were  glehcB  adscripti,  and 
could  not  hire  themselves  to  another  without  his  consent,  no  more 
than  colliers  and  salters  may  do.  Answered,  Esto  they  were  as- 
tricted, yet  it  is  a  contract  ex  una  parte  ohligatorius,  and  if  you  want 
a  boat,  then  I  am  free  to  go  and  serve  where  I  please,  and  it  is  a  di- 
rect manumission  from  the  servitude  when  you  have  no  work  to  give 
me.  And  colliers  are  tied  by  an  express  statute,  whereas  there  is  none 

83 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

claim  to  a  serf  in  the  Scottish  Court  occurred  in 
1364;  ^  so  that  mediseval  serfdom  appears  to  have 
died  out  in  Scotland  nearly  twenty  years  before 
the  grievances  of  the  peasants  led  to  a  widespread 
revolt  in  England  in  1381.  Sir  George  MacKenzie 
in  his  Institutes  (1694,  p.  50)  claims  that  the  title 
of  slavery  in  the  Civil  Law  has  no  application  for 
Scotland,  and  in  the  same  connection  Lord  Stair 
(1681,  p.  21)  contrasts  the  immunity  of  Scotland 
with  the  vestiges  of  serfdom  which  had  so  long 
survived  in  England;  but  at  the  very  time  when 
these  lawyers  were  writing,  this  new  form  of  capi- 
talist slavery  was  growing  up  under  their  very 
eyes.  The  Habeas  Corpus  Act  of  1701  ^  especially 
excepted  the  colliers  and  salters  from  protection 
against  "  wrongeous"  imprisonment.  Forbes  writ- 
ing of  the  law  of  Scotland  in  1722  explains  that 
**  servants  are  either  slaves  or  hirelings  or  appren- 
"tices.  Slaves  are  those  who  are  at  the  arbitrary 
*' pleasure  of  their  master,  and  may  be  sold  by  him 
"as  his  goods.  We  have  no  vestige  of  slavery  re- 
in this  case."  These  fishers  had  been  many  years  out  of  Foveran's 
service,  because  he  kept  no  boat.  The  Lords  finding  that  there  was 
no  law  astricting  fishers  to  the  ground  where  they  were  born,  and 
that  the  custom  was  not  general,  but  only  in  particular  places,  they 
condemned  it  *' as  a,  corrupt ela  and  unlaw,  and  tending  to  introduce 
slavery  contrary  to  the  principles  of  the  Christian  Religion  and  the 
mildness  of  our  government "  (16  Feb.,  1698).  Sir  J.  Lauder  of  Fon- 
tainhall's  Decisions,  1678-1712. 

^  Innes,  Scotch  Legal  Antiquities,  159. 

2  Acts  1701,  c.  6. 

84 


PRESBYTERIANISM  AND  SCRIPTURE 

**maining  in  Scotland,  except  in  coal-hewers  and 
"salt-makers,  who  having  once  been  employed  to 
"  work  in  coal  pits  or  salt  houses  by  the  coal  or  salt 
"  master  are  by  law,  without  any  express  action,  in- 
thralled  or  astricted,  during  their  life,  to  perform 
these  services  to  him;  and  may  be  recovered  by 
him  from  any  unlawful  possessor,  to  whom  they 
unwarrantably  revolt  from  their  master's  serv- 
ice. These,  if  challenged  within  a  year,  the  pos- 
sessor must  deliver  back  to  their  master  within 
twenty-four  hours,  under  pain  of  £100  Scots,  to 
be  paid  to  him.   Coal  and  salt  masters  are  also 
empowered  to  apprehend  and  set  to  work  vaga- 
bonds and  sturdy  beggars;  but  are  not  allowed 
to  give  to  coal-hewers  more  than  twenty  merks 
money  foresaid  in  fee  or  bounty;  and  these  and 
other   workmen    in  coal-pits   and   salt-houses 
must  labour  all  the  six  days  of  the  week  upon 
pain  of  20  sh.  per  diem,  to  be  paid  to  their  mas- 
ter, beside  corporal  punishment,  and  making 
up  his  prejudice."  ^    It  took  two  acts  of  the 
Parliament  of  Great  Britain  to  break  down  the 
new  slavery  which  had  grown  up  in  Presbyte- 
rian Scotland  during  the  seventeenth  century.^ 
If  anyone  cares  to  follow  the  matter  further  and 
considers  the  treatment  which  was  laid  down  for 

^  Professor  W.  Forbes,  Institutes  of  the  Law  of  Scotland,  i,  73, 
*  15  Geo.  Ill,  c.  28,  and  39  Geo.  111,0.56. 

85 


(( 

a 
<( 
<( 

« 
« 
« 

(C 

« 

<< 

<( 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

hirelings  and  apprentices,  he  will  perhaps  feel  that 
it  was  not  marked  by  any  excessive  humanita- 
rianism. 

The  relief  of  the  impotent  poor  was  attended  to 
by  the  ministers  and  elders,  but  the  occasional 
insight  which  we  get  as  to  the  treatment  which 
was  meted  out  to  the  able-bodied  beggars  shows 
that  they  were  regarded  as  a  danger  to  the  com- 
munity and  as  persons  who  ought  to  be  punished. 
There  is  no  sign  of  any  inkling  of  the  possibility 
that  they  were  unemployed  through  no  fault  of 
their  own,  or  of  any  hope  of  winning  them  back  to 
a  better  mode  of  life  except  by  severity.  The  mu- 
nicipal authorities  were  chiefly  concerned  in  this 
matter.  By  an  order  of  the  Town  Council  of  Banff 
in  1642^  beggars  were  to  be  put  in  the  "Thief's 
"  Hole  "  till  the  magistrates  get  convenient  time  to 
"scourge  them  in  the  most  rigorous  manner  with- 
out any  pity."  In  1673  houses  of  correction  were 
set  at  a  number  of  different  centres  in  the  coun- 
try, and  a  very  rigid  discipline  was  introduced 
among  those  who  had  been  caught  begging, 
and  were  sent  to  these  establishments.  The  puni- 
tive treatment  of  the  poor  was  very  noticeable  in 
Scotland,  but  there  is  very  little  evidence  of  pre- 
ventive legislation,  by  providing  stocks  of  ma- 
terial for  setting  the  poor  to  work. 

1  W.  Watt,  Aberdeenshire,  207. 
86 


PRESBYTERIANISM  AND  SCRIPTURE 

III.    THE   DANGER   OF   MISUSING    SCRIPTURE 

The  Bible  was  at  once  the  foundation,  the  text- 
book, and  the  inspiration  of  the  Presbyterian  the- 
ocracy, and  yet  it  was  a  social  system  which 
proved  very  one-sided  and  failed  to  provide  against 
the  injustice  towards  labour  which  has  come  to 
light  in  modern  society.  Attention  was  directed 
to  the  good  of  society;  and  the  individual,  except 
as  he  contributed  to  the  good  of  society,  was 
hardly  taken  into  account.  The  capitalist  system 
brought  the  forces  of  progress  to  bear,  so  as  to 
promote  the  material  welfare  of  the  polity;  Cal- 
vinism, recognising  the  importance  of  capital  as  a 
factor  in  the  welfare  of  the  community,  allowed  it 
to  have  free  play,  and  thus  gave  a  religious  sanc- 
tion to  these  forces  of  progress,  without  consider- 
ing the  incidental  suffering  that  might  arise  in  the 
onward  march  of  progress.  Those  who  took  an 
active  part  in  promoting  the  material  wealth  of  the 
community  were  regarded  as  public  benefactors 
who  were  doing  their  duty  to  society;  while  those 
who  failed  to  keep  pace  or  to  hold  their  own  in  the 
struggle  for  existence  were  regarded  as  encum- 
brances, and  when  they  were  able-bodied  were 
blamed  rather  than  pitied.  The  religious  approval, 
which  has  thus  been  given  to  men  who  practised 
the  prudential  virtues  with  success,  and  who  re- 

87 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

ceived  an  ample  reward  for  the  services  they  ren- 
dered to  the  pubHc,  is  responsible  for  the  strong 
impression  which  exists  in  many  quarters  that 
modern  Christianity  is  on  the  side  of  the  rich  and 
takes  little  thought  for  the  needs  of  the  poor.  Cal- 
vinism by  its  failure  to  recognise  that  there  was 
any  need  to  try  to  control  industrial  capitalism, 
had  laid  itself  open  to  this  charge. 

Richard  Baxter,  who  may  be  regarded  as  a 
typical  exponent  of  Presbyterian  morality  as  it 
was  imported  into  England,  has  little  to  say 
about  the  danger  of  entering  into  hard  bargains, 
but  is  satisfied  that  the  market  rate  is  a  fair  rate; 
he  does  indeed  recommend  that  land  should  be  let 
for  less  than  its  market  value  to  poor  men,^  but  he 
seems  to  have  no  fear  that  extortion  may  be  prac- 
tised by  the  rich  employer;  and  he  certainly  gives 
no  guidance  to  those  who  might  wish  to  do  the 
fair  thing  in  industrial  and  commercial  life.  Even 
at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  there 
was  no  inclination  to  impute  any  blame  to  the 
capitalist  for  the  evils  that  had  emerged  under 
a  system  of  free  competition.  Thomas  Chalm- 
ers' enthusiasm  for  social  reform  was  yet  com- 
patible with  acceptance  of  laissez-faire;  he  held 
that  the  mischief  that  had  arisen  was  directly 
due  to  improvident  marriages  among  the  poor, 

*  Christian  Directory,  iv,  p.  137. 
88 


PRESBYTERIANISM  AND  SCRIPTURE 

and  he  hoped  that  Christian  agencies,  if  more 
widely  diffused,  would  act  successfully  as  a  moral 
restraint,  and  thus  bring  about  an  improved 
material  condition;  but  even  with  the  shock- 
ing misery  which  surrounded  him  at  the  close 
of  the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  he 
had  no  suspicion  that  any  authoritative  check 
need  be  put  upon  the  working  of  the  capitalist 
system  so  as  to  introduce  better  conditions  of 
work  and  better  conditions  of  life.  He  explains 
*'how  roughly  a  population  can  bear  to  be  han- 
"dled,  both  by  adverse  seasons  and  by  vicissi- 
"tudes  of  trade  —  and  how,  after  all,  there  is  a 
**  stability  about  a  people's  means  which  will  keep 
**its  ground  against  many  shocks,  and  amidst 
"many  fluctuations.  It  is,"  he  proceeds,  "a  mys- 
"tery  and  a  marvel  to  many  an  observer,  how 
**the  seemingly  frail  and  precarious  interest  of 
"the  labouring  classes  should,  after  all,  have  the 
"stamina  of  such  endurance,  as  to  weather  the 
"most  fearful  reverses  both  of  commerce  and  of 
"the  seasons;  and  that,  somehow  or  other,  you 
"find,  after  an  interval  of  gloomy  suffering  and 
"still  gloomier  fears,  that  the  families  do  emerge 
"  again  into  the  same  state  of  sufficiency  as  before. 
"We  know  not  a  fitter  study  for  the  philanthro- 
"pist,  than  the  workings  of  that  mechanism  by 
"which  a  process  so  gratifying  is  caused,  or  in 

89 


(t 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

which  he  will  find  greater  reason  to  admire  the 
exquisite  skill  of  those  various  adaptations,  that 
**must  be  referred  to  the  providence  of  Him  who 
"framed  society,  and  suited  so  wisely  to  each 
"other  the  elements  whereof  it  is  composed."  ^ 
He  finds  "a  counterpoise  to  the  laws  of  nature  in 
"what  may  be  termed  the  laws  of  political  econ- 
"omy."  2 

The  defects  in  the  Calvinistic  social  system 
were  not  due  to  the  short-sightedness  of  a  partic- 
ular generation,  but  were  inherent  in  the  system 
itself.  It  rested  on  a  misapprehension  of  the  na- 
ture of  Christian  morality;  in  the  Old  Testament 
the  constitution  of  a  Divine  Theocracy  was  put  in 
the  forefront,  but  it  was  a  mistake  to  suppose  that 
in  the  great  principles  to  which  Old  Testament 
prophets  appealed,  "the  laws  of  social  welfare  are 
"for  all  time  enunciated;  and  further  that  these 
"laws  are  as  irrefragable  and  their  issues  as  inevi- 
"  table  as  are  such  scientific  laws  as  those  which 
"govern  the  motion  of  bodies,  and  as  laws  of  light 
" or  heat  or  electricity."  ^  It  is  difficult  to  see  how 
any  spiritual  influence  could  be  brought  to  bear  di- 
rectly on  such  a  mechanism,  and  we  should  strive 
to  advance  from  the  Old  Testament  view  of  an  ex- 

»  Chalmers,  The  Christian  and  Civic  Economy  of  Large  Towns, 
III,  36-7. 

2  Ihid.,  Ill,  p.  38. 

8  W.  E.  Chadwick,  The  Church,  the  State,  and  the  Poor,  90. 

90 


PRESBYTERIANISM  AND  SCRIPTURE 

ternal  code  for  society  to  the  teaching  by  which  it 
was  superseded  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  Our 
Lord  does  not  lay  down  additional  statutes  for  a 
code  which  was  to  be  enforced  from  without,  but 
lays  stress  on  the  importance  of  personal  motives 
and  the  incentive  afforded  by  personal  aspiration. 
Principles  are  laid  down  by  which  the  citizen  of 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  may  become  more  wor- 
thy of  his  citizenship.  It  is  always  true  that  socie- 
ties and  individuals  react  upon  one  another.  The 
Old  Testament  method  recognised  the  importance 
of  a  theocracy  as  forming  the  habits  of  God-fear- 
ing individuals,  but  there  is  also  another  side. 
The  increase  of  personal  virtue  reacts  upon  soci- 
ety, personal  effort  may  be  the  means  of  initiating 
and  carrying  through  legislative  improvements. 
Individuals  can  mould  the  society  of  which  they 
form  a  part,  and  Christianity  supplements  Old 
Testament  teaching  by  maintaining  that  it  is 
through  the  devotion  and  earnestness  of  individu- 
als that  the  regeneration  of  society  may  be  accom- 
plished. 


IV 

INDEPENDENTS  AND  THE  SUPREMACY  OF 

CONSCIENCE 

I.    PERSONAL   CONVICTION    AND   GATHERED 

CHURCHES 

The  Independents,  whose  principles  had  been 
occasionally  asserted  during  the  reigns  of  Eliza- 
beth and  the  Stuarts,  came  to  the  front  during  the 
Interregnum.  They  altogether  rejected  any  sys- 
tem of  National  Christianity,  and  insisted  on  the 
supremacy  of  personal  conviction  as  the  basis  of 
all  true  Church  life.  Instead  of  putting  Christian 
society  in  the  forefront  and  thinking  of  the  indi- 
vidual character  as  formed  and  moulded  by  this 
environment,  they  regarded  the  individuals  as  the 
constituent  elements  who  associated  themselves 
into  a  religious  society.  Browne  maintained  that 
"the  Church  planted  or  gathered  is  a  company  or 
"number  of  Christians  or  believers,  which  by  a 
"willing  covenant  made  with  their  God,  are  under 
"the  government  of  God  and  Christ,  and  keep  His 
"laws  in  one  holy  communion;  because  Christ 
"hath  redeemed  them  unto  holiness  and  happi- 
"ness  for  ever,  from  which  they  were  fallen  by  the 

92 


cc 


(6 


(( 


INDEPENDENTS  AND  CONSCIENCE 

"sin  of  Adam."  ^  Such  persons  constituted  them- 
selves a  Church  "by  a  pubHc  wilHng  covenant 
"made  with  God  and  with  each  other."  The  ad- 
herents of  this  view  of  the  nature  of  a  Church  be- 
lieved that  they  were  justified  by  the  description 
given  in  the  Acts,  of  the  organisation  of  the  primi- 
tive churches  in  Apostolic  times;  but  it  is  difficult 
to  see  that  their  conception  of  a  Church  was  in 
accordance  with  other  parts  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. "Congregationalism,"  as  Dexter  claims,  "is 
pre-eminently  the  polity  of  perfect  men,  and  it 
cannot  do  its  perfect  work  until  there  be  perfect 
men  ";  ^  but  the  work  of  Christ's  Church,  as  Our 
Lord  seems  to  have  anticipated  it,  was  to  be  done 
through  the  agency  of  imperfect  men  living  in  an 
evil  world  and  leavening  it.  The  separate  "gath- 
ered "  Churches  might  have  fraternal  relations  but 
little  cohesion,  and  it  is  difficult  to  think  of  them  in 
the  Pauline  phrase  as  forming  one  body.  At  any 
rate  the  principles  of  the  Independents,  whether 
sound  or  not,  brought  them  into  antagonism  with 
existing  parties;  they  rejected  the  Theocracy 
which  the  Presbyterians  advocated  as  scriptural, 
while  they  also  denounced  the  hierarchy  which 
was  maintained  in  the  Church  of  England.  To 
them  the  very  idea  of  a  National  Church  seemed 

^  Browne,  Book  which  Sheweth,  etc.,  Def.  35.  Quoted  in  Dexter, 
Congregationalism,  105. 

2  Dexter,  Congregationalism,  694. 

93 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

almost  a  contradiction  in  terms:  "it  was  un- 
"  scriptural  in  essence  because  it  included  the 
"entire  baptised  population."^ 

The  question  of  local  organisation  gave  occa- 
sion for  the  conflict,  between  the  Independents 
and  the  adherents  of  National  Christianity,  to 
break  out  most  fiercely.  To  the  English  Church- 
man, as  well  as  to  the  Scottish  Presbyterian,  the 
parish  was  the  local  organ  by  which  the  national 
religious  life  was  maintained.  Independents  were 
repelled  by  "the  laxness,  the  corruption,  the  prac- 
"tical  ungodliness  of  those  parish  assemblies  of 
"all  sorts  of  persons  which  were  the  only  Churches 
"that  the  Church  of  England  knew.  Not  merely 
"the  worldliest,  and  the  most  selfish  and  greedy 
"people,  but  unbelievers  and  those  of  scandalous 
"  lives,  might  legally,  if  in  point  of  fact  they  did  not 
"habitually,  partake  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  with- 
"out  protest,  or  distinction,  side  by  side  with  the 
"very  elect  and  anointed  of  God."  ^  Browne,  the 
best  known  of  the  Elizabethan  Independents,  felt 
that  the  parochial  system  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land was  so  corrupt  that  it  was  a  duty  for  Chris- 
tian men  to  withdraw  from  it  and  gather  them- 
selves into  Churches  which  should  be  really  pure. 
"Therefore  thus  sayeth  the  Lord,"  he  writes,  "I 
"feed  not  my  flock  at  Paul's  Cross  in  London,  or 

*  Dexter,  Congregationalism,  57.  '  Ibid.,  97. 

94 


INDEPENDENTS  AND  CONSCIENCE 

"St.  Mary's  in  Cambridge,  or  in  your  English  Par- 
wishes.  O  ye  my  sheep  go  ye  not  hither  as  though 
**  there  were  my  fold,  and  there  I  rested  and  feed 
"my  flock;  for  there  be  shepherds  and  flocks  also 
"that  follow  thee,  which  are  not  of  Christ,  for  they 
"hold  of  Antichrist."  ^ 

These  principles  were  subversive  of  the  very 
conception  of  a  Christian  polity  as  it  had  been 
hitherto  understood.  The  Christian  community, 
as  Independents  believed,  existed  for  spiritual 
purposes,  and  held  aloof,  so  far  as  might  be,  from 
civil  affairs;  these  should  be  left  to  the  magistrates 
to  be  dealt  with  according  to  natural  principles  of 
right  and  wrong.  The  conscious  analogy  with  the 
primitive  Church  in  heathen  cities  was  pressed; 
and  the  thought  of  the  Christian  magistrate,  as 
ordained  by  God  to  administer  civil  affairs  in  a 
Christian  polity,  lost  practical  importance.  For 
them  life  was  divided  into  two  spheres;  and  it  lay 
outside  the  scope  of  the  Church,  as  a  Church,  to 
give  instruction  in  regard  to  social  and  political 
duty  in  the  world;  the  civil  order  was  treated 
as  a  thing  indifferent,  and  the  Christian  princi- 
ple could  hardly  be  brought  to  bear  either  on 
duties  to  the  community,  or  on  the  duties  of 
the  community.   Indeed,  from  this  point  of  view 

^  Dexter,  Congregationalism,  99n. 
95 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

the  whole  of  secular  government  was  reduced  to 
little  more  than  the  furtherance  of  the  interests 
of  the  community;  but  it  was  difficult  to  maintain 
this  position  consistently.  The  New  Englanders 
regarded  themselves  as  bound  in  self-defence  to 
engage  in  wars  which  might  ultimately  give  their 
communities  the  opportunities  of  growing  and 
flourishing  in  peace,  while  the  Independents 
found  it  impossible  to  refrain  from  authoritative 
interference  with  the  religious  institutions  of 
the  country.  During  the  Interregnum  an  oppor- 
tunity arose  for  endeavouring  to  attack  the 
parochial  system  and  to  substitute  a  method  of 
propagating  what  they  regarded  as  a  thoroughly 
reformed  Christianity;  and  the  civil  power  was 
invoked  for  this  purpose.  Cromwell's  institution 
of  Triers,  acting  under  the  authority  of  majors- 
general,  was  part  of  this  scheme;  but  modern  Con- 
gregationalists  looked  back  on  this  alliance  with 
the  State  as  a  temporary  falling  away  from  the 
true  principles  of  Congregationalism.^ 

The  scheme  for  abolishing  the  parochial  system 
was  carried  out  most  completely  in  South  Wales. 
Within  a  month  of  the  execution  of  Charles  I, 
the  House  of  Commons  passed  an  Act^  which 

*  Dexter,  Congregationalism,  708.  » 

'  Walker,  Sufferings  of  the  Clergy,  149. 

96 


INDEPENDENTS  AND  CONSCIENCE 

appointed  commissioners  to  receive  all  the  rents 
of  glebes  and  tithes,  etc.,  of  all  parishes  that  were 
vacant  and  of  all  the  parishes  from  which  the 
clergy  should  be  ejected.  Three  hundred  or  more 
livings  in  South  Wales  passed  into  their  hands, 
and  they  thus  received  an  income  of  something 
like  £9000  a  year,  of  which  it  was  difficult  to  get 
the  commissioners  to  render  any  account.^ 

The  efforts  of  the  itinerant  preachers  who  were 
appointed  by  the  commissioners  to  preach  and 
plant  congregations  in  Wales  seemed  to  be  very 
ineffective  as  a  substitute  for  the  ministrations  of 
the  resident  clergy.  Baxter  ^  notes  that  they  "  set 
"  up  a  few  itinerant  preachers,  who  were  for  num- 
"bers,  incompetent  for  so  great  a  charge;  there 
"being  but  one  to  many  of  those  wide  parishes  so 
**  that  the  people  having  a  sermon  but  once  in  many 
"weeks,  and  nothing  else  in  the  meantime,  were 
"  ready  to  turn  Papists  or  anything  else."  Accord- 
ing to  another  account  the  people  had  neither 
"the  comfort  of  preaching,  nor  praying,  nor  sacra- 
"ments,  nor  visiting  the  sick,  nor  of  any  decency 
"of  burial."  Even  preaching  was  infrequent,  so 
that  the  "churches  were  in  most  places  shut  up, 
"and  the  fabric  thereof  ready  to  fall  to  the  ground 
"for  want  of  repair."  ^ 

*  Walker,  op.  cit.,  168.  '  Ahridgement,  67. 

«  Petition  (1651),  2;  quoted  by  Walker,  op.  cit.,  163. 

97 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

The  indignation  which  was  roused  by  this  at- 
tempt to  divert  parochial  endowments  to  the 
purposes  of  State,  and  to  substitute  an  itinerant 
ministry  for  resident  parochial  clergy,  was  bit- 
terly resented  both  by  English  Churchmen  and 
Presbyterians;  and  a  petition,  by  about  fifteen 
thousand  hands,  was  presented  to  the  Commons 
on  March  16,  1651,  which  complained  of  the 
great  number  of  ministers  that  had  been  ejected, 
the  foul  and  shameful  neglect  of  supplying  their 
places  by  any  competent  number  of  teachers,  the 
vast  revenues  of  the  sequestered  livings,  and  the 
miserable  state  and  condition  into  which  that 
country  was  reduced.^  But  in  spite  of  the  resent- 
ment that  was  caused  by  this  new  policy  in  re- 
gard to  the  religious  life  of  the  country,  there  is 
evidence  of  an  intention  to  push  forward  the 
abolition  of  parochial  ministers  and  the  substitu- 
tion of  occasional  stipendiary  preachers  in  other 
parts  of  the  country.  An  Act  appears  to  have 
been  passed  for  carrying  out  a  similar  scheme 
in  Northumberland,  Cumberland,  Westmoreland 
and  Durham;  ^  and  in  Cromwell's  Little  Parlia- 
ment the  proposal  to  put  down  all  the  parish 
ministers  in  England  ^  was  mooted  and  only  de- 
feated by  a  very  small  majority.  These  proceed- 
ings go  far  to  explain  the  violence  of  the  reaction 

1  Walker,  op.  ciL,  167.  *  Ibid.,  150.  '  Ibid.,  68. 

98 


INDEPENDENTS  AND  CONSCIENCE 

at  the  Restoration  in  favour  of  maintaining  and 
enforcing  the  parochial  system  by  means  of  the 
Clarendon  Code.  The  triumph  of  Independency 
had  meant  the  entire  disintegration  of  National 
Christianity,  as  hitherto  maintained,  both  by  the 
Episcopal  and  Presbyterian  Churches. 

The  attack  upon  the  parochial  system  has  been 
revived  in  a  more  acute  form  in  the  controversy  in 
regard  to  the  disendowment  of  the  Welsh  Church; 
though  the  facilities,  which  are  now  open  for  main- 
taining separate  congregations,  are  very  different 
from  those  which  existed  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, and  there  is  not  the  same  danger  of  entire 
spiritual  neglect  as  there  was  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  ago.  One  difficulty  which  is  felt  not 
only  in  Wales,  but  all  over  England,  in  connection 
with  the  parochial  system  lies  in  the  arrangements 
for  decent  and  Christian  burial.  Till  recently, 
those  who  were  buried  in  churchyards  in  England 
were  not  free  to  refuse  the  funeral  rites  of  the 
English  Church.  In  some  cases  Dissenters  pro- 
vided burial  grounds  of  their  own,  and  very  gen- 
erally they  felt  it  to  be  a  grievance  that  they 
should  pay  rates  for  churchyards  where  services 
with  which  they  did  not  sympathise  were  obli- 
gatory. This  grievance  was  redressed  in  1868; 
but  since  that  time  there  has  been  fresh  cause 
for  local  discontent,  since  dissenters  have  now 

99 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

a  right  to  the  use  of  parochial  burying  grounds, 
while  many  of  them  feel  no  moral  obligation 
to  assist  in  maintaining  them  or  providing  addi- 
tional ground  when  it  is  needed.  The  estrange- 
ment between  Church  and  Dissent  in  many  local- 
ities in  England  has  arisen  and  been  maintained 
by  the  feeling  on  the  part  of  churchmen  that 
dissenters  are  lacking  in  local  public  spirit. 

II.  ADMINISTRATIVE  DUTIES  AND  THE  SOCIETY 

OF  FRIENDS 

The  Independents  had  put  forward  the  suprem- 
acy of  the  individual  conscience  in  such  a  fashion 
as  to  bring  themselves  into  conscious  conflict 
with  the  national  life  of  England,  as  organised 
for  religious  purposes;  but  George  Fox  and  the 
Friends  went  a  step  further;  their  sense  of  per- 
sonal duty  brought  them  into  conflict  with  the 
organisation  of  national  life  for  civil  purposes  as 
well.  They  were  not  only,  as  we  know  them  in  the 
present  day,  ready  to  protest  against  national 
action  in  appealing  to  the  ordeal  of  war,  but  they 
were  keen  critics  of  those  who  undertook  admin- 
istrative duties  and  carried  on  the  business  of 
civil  government.  To  most  men  it  appeared,  that 
the  official  acts  of  an  organised  community  were 
not  to  be  judged  by  the  standard  that  applied 
to  the  individual.   The  private  person  ought  not 

100 


INDEPENDENTS  AND  CONSCIENCE 

to  treat  his  neighbour  with  violence,  except  in  self- 
defence;  but  the  magistrate,  who  is  placed  in  a 
public  position,  has  a  right  to  bear  a  sword  and 
bring  force  to  bear  on  any  wrongdoer.  Again,  the 
civil  magistrate  is  justified  in  exacting  a  solemn 
oath  in  order  to  secure  reliable  evidence  as  to  the 
guilt  or  innocence  of  any  accused  party;  to  ordi- 
nary common  sense  it  seems  justifiable  to  take 
life  as  the  punishment  of  a  crime,  and  it  is  allow- 
able to  organise  armed  resistance  to  an  attack  of 
foreign  enemies  or  to  maintain  the  cause  of  the 
Prince  against  foreign  foes.  But  the  conscientious 
Quaker  refused  to  recognise  this  political  moral- 
ity;  for  him  the  conscience  of  the  individual  Chris- 
tian man  was  absolute,  and  official  position  did 
not  justify  any  man  in  conduct  which  was  not 
permissible  for  the  Christian  man  in  his  private 
capacity;  hence  the  Quaker  condemned  much  that 
seemed  essential  to  the  very  existence  of  a  Chris- 
tian polity.  He  did  not  recognise  that  the  com- 
munity had  rights  and  duties  of  its  own,  which 
were  distinct  from  those  of  the  private  citizen, 
and  thus  his  religious  views  not  only  placed  him 
in  a  position  in  which  it  was  difficult  to  assimilate 
him  to  the  life  of  the  community,  but  his  atomic 
doctrine  of  the  State  made  him  something  of  a 
positive  danger,  as  anarchists  are  regarded  in  the 
present  day.  Nothing  seems  more  strange  at  first 

101 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

sight  than  the  bitter  persecution  to  which  Quakers 
were  exposed  under  one  regime  after  another, 
especially  as  there  is  much  to  be  said  for  their 
position  on  purely  scriptural  grounds.  Just  as  the 
Presbyterians  endeavoured  to  create  a  polity  that 
should  be  in  complete  accordance  with  the  Bible 
as  a  whole,  including  the  Divine  ordinances  for 
the  Old  Testament  monarchy,  so  the  Quakers 
endeavoured  to  treat  the  New  Testament  alone 
as  a  sufficient  guide  in  all  the  affairs  of  life.  In 
Apostolic  times  and  under  a  heathen  empire  the 
conception  of  a  Christian  polity  had  not  arisen, 
and  there  was  little  opportunity  for  the  Christian 
man  to  take  part  in  administrative  duties  or 
public  life.  The  question  of  Christian  conduct  in 
public  affairs  could  not  come  up  till  Christian 
teaching  had  secured  some  dominance  over  those 
who  were  called  to  rule;  but  the  attitude  towards 
public  life,  which  was  current  among  Christian 
men  in  the  first  century,  was  no  longer  appropri- 
ate for  dealing  with  the  problems  which  English- 
men had  to  face  in  the  seventeenth. 

The  Quaker,  as  a  Christian  man,  felt  com- 
pelled to  decline  the  ordinary  duties  of  citizen- 
ship; he  would  not  give  evidence  in  the  accus- 
tomed fashion  and  he  refused  to  be  a  party  to 
the  use  of  might  in  the  defence  of  right.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  speak  in  general  terms  of  such  a  body  as 

102 


INDEPENDENTS  AND  CONSCIENCE 

the  Quakers  who  did  not  formulate  principles  to 
which  they  all  adhered,  but  were  merely  friends 
who  had  similar  opinions;  they  were  not  actively 
hostile  to  the  very  existence  of  civil  government 
in  the  way  that  Anabaptists  were,  rightly  or 
wrongly,  accused  of  being;  but  they  took  one 
Christian  standard  as  applying  to  personal  con- 
duct in  every  capacity,  and  regarded  swearing  in 
court  as  profanity,  and  killing  in  battle  as  murder. 
By  giving  an  undue  extension  to  the  maxims  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  in  their  literal  applica- 
tion they  diverted  attention  from  the  Christian 
duty  of  exorcising  the  spirit  of  bitterness  from  the 
heart,  while  on  the  other  hand  they  condemned 
the  attitude  which  had  been  taken  by  Christian 
men  towards  war  in  all  previous  ages.^ 

In  regard  to  many  of  the  duties  of  citizenship 
no  conflict  would  arise.  George  Fox  exhorted  the 
justices  near  Mansfield  not  to  be  oppressive  in 
assessing  the  wages  of  hired  servants.^  Penn  stood 
upon  the  rights,  manorial  and  other,  conferred 
upon  him  by  royal  patent  in  the  settlement  of 
Pennsylvania.^  In  such  matters  it  was  possible  to 
press  for  private  rights,  and  it  was  natural  that 
conduct  should  be  judged  by  the  standards  that 

1  See  Appendix  on  the  Attitude  of  the  Church  towards  War. 

2  Cunningham,  Growth  of  English  Industry  and  Commerce,  ii,  44. 

3  The  Welsh  Settlers  complained  that  his  treatment  was  ungen- 
erous. C.  H.  Browning,  Welsh  Settlements  of  Pennsylvania,  334. 

103 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

were  applicable  to  private  men.  The  whole  atti- 
tude of  the  Quakers  assumed  the  existence  of  a 
framework  of  society,  but  they  refused  to  admit 
that  the  maintenance  of  that  framework  justified 
conduct  which  was  not  permissible  in  private  af- 
fairs. These  Friends  were  endeavouring  to  order 
their  lives  by  a  Christian  standard;  they  were 
punctilious  in  refraining  from  ostentatious  dress, 
and  in  using  simplicity  in  speech.^  They  were  not 
in  a  position  to  undertake  public  duties  them- 
selves, and  they  were  severe  critics  of  the  man- 
ner in  which  official  authority  was  exercised  by 
others.  They  set  up  a  sort  of  new  religious  code, 
which  condemned  certain  acts  as  wrong  in  them- 
selves apart  from  any  consideration  of  circum- 
stances; and  thus  they  obscured  the  fact  that  the 
rightness  and  wrongness  of  conduct  is  to  be  con- 
sidered according  to  circumstances  and  that  the 
motives  which  had  been  at  work  make  a  difference 
in  regard  to  guilt  and  innocence. 

The  Quaker  point  of  view  is  simple  and  plausi- 
ble; it  has  been  revived  in  the  writings  of  such 
a  man  as  Tolstoy,  and  it  has  found  a  congenial 
soil  in  the  great  body  of  Nonconformists.  While 
specially  scrupulous  in  regard  to  the  duties  of 
private  men,  they  have  not  shown  themselves 
keenly  alive  to  the  duty  of  the  nation  as  a  whole, 

1  J.  J.  Fox,  Society  of  Friends,  69-94. 
104 


INDEPENDENTS  AND  CONSCIENCE 

or  the  importance  of  organised  action.  The  prac- 
tical difference  between  those  who  do,  and  those 
who  do  not  regard  the  community  as  a  body  which 
has  a  responsibihty  to  God,  comes  out  at  times  of 
national  crisis.  Men  who  feel  that  a  nation,  which 
fails  to  use  its  power  to  defend  a  weak  neighbour, 
or  to  maintain  an  engagement,  if  necessary  by 
force  of  arms,  is  guilty  of  criminal  neglect,  are 
ready  to  do  their  utmost  to  save  their  country 
from  falling  into  this  shame  and  dishonour. 
Reluctance  to  join  the  army  is  one  sign  of  luke- 
warmness  in  regard  to  the  duties  of  the  commu- 
nity.^ Members  of  denominations  which  do  not 
recognise  the  religious  aspect  of  national  life  are 
tempted  to  plead  their  own  private  opinions  as  an 
excuse  for  declining  to  take  a  part  in  a  national 
struggle.  In  Wales,  where  for  political  purposes 
Nonconformity  is  dominant,  the  members  of  Free 
Churches  have  contributed  a  very  small  propor- 
tion of  Welshmen  w^ho  have  rallied  to  the  call  to 
arms;  while  the  strike  of  the  Welsh  miners,  what- 
ever their  grievances  may  be,  shows  that  they  are 
not  keenly  appreciative  of  any  duty  to  the  com- 
munity. Insistence  on  the  rights  of  the  individual 

1  The  percentage  of  the  various  denominations  in  the  Army  is 
given  in  a  report  of  the  Army  Council  (November,  1914),  Church  of 
England,  70  per  cent.;  Roman  Catholics,  14  per  cent.;  Presbyterians, 
7  per  cent.,  and  Wesleyans,  4  per  cent.  On  the  other  hand  the  Bap- 
tists and  Congregationalists  furnish  1.2  between  them,  other  Prot- 
estants 6  per  cent.,  and  Jews  .08;  and  of  course  there  are  no  Quakers. 

105 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

conscience  and  concentration  on  the  duties  of 
private  life  have  their  part  to  play  at  all  times. 
But  religious  teaching  which  goes  no  further  is  of 
little  help  to  the  democratic  citizen  as  a  guide  or 
stimulus  in  exercising  his  privileges;  it  cannot 
supply  fruitful  suggestion  in  regard  to  matters  of 
State,  and  to  men  engaged  in  active  life  it  seems 
to  be  impractical  and  absurd.  We  cannot  dis- 
cuss the  duties  of  the  community  intelligently 
unless  we  regard  the  community  as  an  organic 
whole  which  has  a  life  and  duties  of  its  own, 
and  not  merely  as  an  aggregate  of  independent 
atoms. 

III.    CHRISTIAN  ASSOCIATIONS 

Those  who  had  adopted  the  new  conception  of 
a  Christian  society,  as  a  purely  religious  body 
throughout,  were  eager  to  realise  it  by  the  only 
methods  that  lay  within  their  reach;  they  seemed 
to  find  definite  instructions  as  to  their  duty  in  St. 
Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians:  "What  com- 
"munion  hath  light  with  darkness?  And  what 
"concord  hath  Christ  with  Belial.^  .  .  .  Wherefore 
"come  out  from  among  them,  and  be  ye  separate, 
"saith  the  Lord,  and  touch  not  the  unclean  thing." 
They  endeavoured  so  far  as  possible  to  escape 
from  this  present  evil  world;  at  first  they  looked 
to  Holland  as  a  district  where  they  might  be  free 

106 


INDEPENDENTS  AND  CONSCIENCE 

from  the  ecclesiastical  discipline  maintained  in 
England,  and  a  congregation  of  Independents  mi- 
grated from  London  to  Amsterdam  in  1593.  Some- 
what later  congregations  from  Scrooby  and  Gains- 
borough followed  these  first  migrants.    Holland, 
as  a  confederation  of  cities  and  provinces,  had 
little  national  unity,  and  made  no  attempt  to 
maintain  the  traditional  conception  of  a  Christian 
polity  with  a  well-ordered  religious  life.   Even  in 
Holland,  however,  they  did  not  find  the  atmo- 
sphere they  desired,  and  they  determined  to  emi- 
grate to  the  New  World  where  they  might  be  free, 
once  for  all,  from  the  unrest  created  by  political 
intrigue  and  the  wars  of  religion.  The  settlers  at 
Plymouth  were  followed  by  a  still  larger  number 
who  planted  themselves  on  Massachusetts  Bay  in 
1629,  and  during  the  seventeenth  century  fresh 
bodies  of  settlers  continued  to  arrive  who  were 
animated  by  the  same  spirit.  The  inhabitants  of 
the  Welsh  Tract  in  Pennsylvania  in  1690  gave 
expression  to  the  feeling  which  was  at  work  in  the 
planting  of  the  New  England  colonies,  as  well  as 
that  of  Pennsylvania.    "We  can  declare,"  they 
say,  "with  an  open  face  to  God  and  man  that  we 
"  desire  to  be  by  ourselves  for  no  other  end  or  pur- 
"  pose  but  that  we  might  live  together  as  a  civil 
"society  to  endeavour  to  decide  all  controversies 
"and  debates  among  ourselves  in  a  gospel  order 

107 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

"and  not  to  entangle  ourselves  with  laws  in  an 
"unknown  tongue,  as  also  to  preserve  our  lan- 
"guage  that  we  might  ever  keep  correspondence 
"with  our  friends  in  the  land  of  our  nativity."  ^ 

Even  in  Pennsylvania,  where  the  conditions 
were  most  favourable,  it  was  not  always  possible 
to  avoid  causes  of  quarrel.  Though  the  Indians, 
as  a  class,  were  peaceable,  the  Welsh  Settlers  had 
some  trouble  with  "bad  Indians,"  who  roamed 
the  forests  and  made  occasional  raids  on  the  live 
stock  of  the  farms.  The  rights  of  property  were 
differently  interpreted  by  Penn  and  by  his  Welsh 
tenants  ^  in  Pennsylvania;  and  the  views  of  Roger 
W^illiams  in  regard  to  civil  rights  led  to  his  ex- 
pulsion from  Massachusetts;  nor  was  it  possible 
to  exclude  religious  differences  altogether,  since 
not  all  the  settlers  would  agree  to  the  disuse  of  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer.  By  the  end  of  the  sev- 
enteenth century  it  became  clear  that  the  attempt 
to  found  a  new  civil  society  on  strictly  Christian 
principles  had  resulted  in  failure.  A  Christian  so- 
ciety in  the  world  cannot  hedge  itself  round  in 
such  a  fashion  as  to  have  a  complete  immunity 
from  the  intrusion  of  mundane  and  secular  affairs. 
Christians  cannot  avoid  contact  with  their  envi- 
ronment, and  live  their  own  life  in  isolation. 

>  Browning,  op.  cit.,  379.  ''  Ibid.,  op.  cii.,  388. 

108 


INDEPENDENTS  AND  CONSCIENCE 

The  difficulties  with  which  these  congregations 
had  to  deal  did  not  merely  arise  from  their  envi- 
ronment, but  were  partly  due  to  the  difficulty  of 
maintaining  a  high  Christian  standard  in  their 
internal  life.  Those  who,  as  members  of  the 
Covenant  of  Grace,  had  been  admitted  into  Chris- 
tian fellowship,  were  inclined  to  claim  that  none  of 
their  brethren  was  justified  in  overruling  the  con- 
scientious convictions  at  which  they  had  arrived. 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  claimed  a  right  to  abstain  from 
the  religious  ordinances  which  the  community 
maintained,  and  to  criticise  in  forcible  language 
the  discourses  delivered  by  the  ministers.  She 
maintained  a  double  weekly  lecture  "  where  after 
"she  had  repeated  the  sermon  she  would  make  her 
comment  upon  it,  vent  her  mischievous  opinions 
as  she  pleased  and  wreathe  the  Scriptures  to  her 
own  purpose."^  It  is  not  necessary  to  try  to 
unravel  the  threads  of  this  famous  controversy; 
but  it  may  suffice  to  point  out  that  while  the 
conscience  is  supreme  within,  the  expression  of 
conviction  in  word  or  deed  may  be  rightly  taken 
into  account  by  an  external  authority.  Even  in 
the  most  spiritual  community  those  who  claim 
to  be  within  the  Covenant  of  Grace  are  not 
thereby  excused   for  disparaging  the  Covenant 

*  Short  Story  of  the  Rise  of  the  Antinomians,  quoted  by  Willcock, 
Life  of  Sir  Henry  Vane^  46. 

109 


it 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

of  Works.    "The  Kingdom   of   God   is   within 


"you." 


These  practical  experiments  were  perhaps  of 
less  importance  than  the  habits  of  thought  on 
political  matters  which  they  expressed  and  helped 
to  perpetuate;  the  conception  of  a  Christian  polity 
as  one  community  considered  in  two  aspects,  civil 
and  religious,  was  abandoned  in  favour  of  the 
view  that  the  two  spheres,  the  civil  and  the  spir- 
itual, were  distinct.   Roger  Williams  formulated 
it  thus,  "We  acknowledge  the  ordinance  of  mag- 
"istracy  to  be  properly  and  adequately  fitted  by 
"  God  to  preserve  the  civil  State  in  civil  peace  and 
"order;  as  He  hath  also  appointed  a  spiritual  gov- 
"ernment  and  Governors  in  matters  pertaining  to 
"His  Worship,  and  the  consciences  of  men,  both 
"which  Government,  Governors,  Laws,  Offences, 
"Punishments  are  Essentially  distinct,  and  the 
"confounding  of  them  brings  all  the  world  inCom- 
*'bustion."  ^  This  endeavour  to  draw  a  clear  line 
between  the  two  spheres  is  very  tempting,  but  it 
is  well  to  notice  what  it  implied.    The  spiritual 
sphere  was  regarded  as  definitely  religious,  where 
all  was  to  be  ordered  under  a  conscious  sense  of 
duty  to  God,  but  it  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
possible  to  maintain  the  same  standard  in  regard 
to  civil  life.  From  an  early  date  the  membership 

1  Quoted  by  Willcock,  Life  of  Sir  Henry  Vane,  149. 

110 


INDEPENDENTS  AND  CONSCIENCE 

of  the  churches  in  Massachusetts  was  not  iden- 
tical with  the  residents  of  the  community ;  and 
when  the  unenfranchised  at  last  secured  a  voice  in 
the  civil  government,  it  came  to  be  clear  that  the 
principles  to  which  appeal  was  made  in  the  reli- 
gious sphere  were  not  identical  with  the  prin- 
ciples to  which  appeal  was  made  in  the  civil 
sphere.  The  civil  sphere  was  no  longer  con- 
sciously religious;  and  hence  the  standards  of 
right  and  wrong  were  given,  not  by  spiritual 
authority  but  by  natural  reason  or  utilitarian 
considerations.  The  attempt  to  establish  a  per- 
fectly pure  Christian  community  had  resulted  in 
driving  the  regulation  of  civil  affairs  and  secular 
life  into  a  sphere  where  religious  considerations 
were  at  all  events  not  primary,  if  indeed  they  were 
relevant  at  all.  The  attempt  to  separate  the 
spiritual  from  all  contact  with  a  mundane  envi- 
ronment and  to  keep  it  immune  from  contami- 
nating influence,  resulted  in  the  disparagement  of 
civil  and  political  society  as  merely  mundane,  and 
led  to  the  abandonment  of  efforts  to  control  them 
by  means  of  religious  influence.  When  the  con- 
scious effort  to  realise  the  Will  of  God  was  con- 
fined to  the  spiritual  sphere,  the  first  step  was 
taken  towards  recognising  the  will  of  the  people 
—  good  or  bad,  wise  or  foolish  —  as  paramount  in 
the  civil  sphere. 

Ill 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

IV.    UNASSIMILATED    ELEMENTS   IN   ENGLISH 

SOCIETY 

At  the  Hestoration,  Parliament  took  up  the 
endeavour  to  assert  the  old  conception  of  a  Chris- 
tian polity  more  vigorously  than  ever  before. 
Twenty  years'  experience  had  forced  many  men 
to  feel  that  the  reassertion  of  the  old  order  in 
Church  and  State  was  the  only  safeguard  against 
the  destruction  of  the  parochial  system  and  the 
dangers  of  military  despotism.  The  Presbyterians, 
who  held  to  monarchical  government  and  national 
Christianity,  were  unable  to  get  a  hearing  for  the 
system  they  would  have  preferred.  It  was  remem- 
bered against  them  that  the  rebellion  in  Scotland 
against  Charles  I  had  led  to  the  outbreak  of  civil 
war,  and  their  ideals  of  loyalty  were  not  easily 
comprehensible  by  the  English  mind.  The  Long 
Parliament  of  the  Restoration  endeavoured  to 
safeguard  the  restored  system  in  Church  and 
State,  by  turning  against  the  Puritans  the  weapons 
which  they  had  forged  for  attacking  the  Church  of 
England.  The  Clarendon  Code  was  the  result; 
and,  as  a  consequence,  the  various  Puritan  bodies 
found  themselves  in  a  much  worse  case  than  be- 
fore the  Civil  War;  then  they  were  only  thwarted 
and  hampered  by  ecclesiastics  whose  position  was 
constitutionally  doubtful,   but  henceforth  they 

in 


INDEPENDENTS  AND  CONSCIENCE 

were  harried  by  the  authority  of  Parliament  and 
under  the  Statutes  of  the  Reahn.  The  relig- 
ious elements  that  could  not  be  assimilated  to 
the  restored  order  in  Church  and  State  were 
necessarily  placed  in  a  position  of  antagonism 
to  the  institutions  of  the  society  in  which  they 
lived. 

While  the  Puritans  were  an  object  of  suspicion 
to  the  civil  authorities,  on  account  of  their  politi- 
cal principles  and  their  affinities  with  the  Dutch, 
there  was  not  much  in  the  restored  monarchy  that 
could  claim  their  respect.  The  Court  was  corrupt; 
the  severity  which  had  been  imposed  on  the  na- 
tion generally  by  the  anxieties  of  the  war  and 
the  administration  of  the  Puritan  regime  was 
suddenly  relaxed.  The  restored  clergy  did  not 
always  commend  themselves  by  their  preaching, 
or  by  their  lives,  to  their  parishioners;  it  must 
have  been  exceedingly  hard  to  feel  that  there  was 
any  Christian  obligation  to  obey  such  a  govern- 
ment. On  the  other  hand,  the  loss  of  the  liberty  of 
forming  gathered  congregations,  which  they  had 
enjoyed  during  the  Interregnum,  was  bitterly  re- 
sented, and  the  Puritans  felt  it  a  religious  duty 
to  stand  on  their  civil  rights,  to  work  hard  for 
an  extension  of  these  rights  and  to  endeavour 
to  obtain  the  repeal  of  all  the  disabilities  under 

113 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

which  they  lived.  These  circumstances  combined 
to  give  its  special  character  to  the  Dissenters' 
sense  of  the  duty  of  a  Christian  citizen.  They 
were  inclined  to  explain  the  duty  of  obedience  to 
human  law  away  altogether.  Mr.  Thompson,  a 
dissenting  preacher,  argued  that  "Scripture  tells 
"us  we  must  obey  the  men  only  in  and  for  the 
"Lord,  which  limitation,"  he  said  "being  ad- 
"mitted,  I  still  assert  that  I  have  not  broken  the 
"law  of  God,  though  I  have  the  law  of  man."  ^ 
On  the  other  hand,  there  appeared  to  be  ample 
reason  for  Dissenters  to  appeal  to  religious 
motives  to  induce  men  to  stand  upon  their 
civil  rights.  It  is  true  that  the  determination  to 
assert  personal  rights  of  any  kind  is  not  at  first 
sight  in  accordance  with  the  Christian  spirit,  and 
though  ample  excuse  may  be  made  for  earnest 
men  in  the  position  in  which  they  found  them- 
selves, their  circumstances  did  not  fit  them  to 
throw  much  light  on  the  difficult  question  as  to 
the  personal  duty  of  the  Christian  citizen  towards 
those  in  civil  Authority.  The  doctrine  of  the  two 
spheres  was  in  itself  an  obstacle  in  the  way  of 
making  any  such  attempt.  In  the  Presbyterian 
Theocracy  the  ejffort  to  bring  religion  to  bear  on 
economic  transactions  had  ceased,  and  the  tri- 
umph of  Independency  and  the  doctrine  of  the 

*  Caxton,  Independency  in  Bristol,  49. . 
114 


INDEPENDENTS  AND  CONSCIENCE 

two  spheres  had  a  similar  effect  in  disassociating 
religion  from  politics. 

This  leaven  worked  so  effectively  as  to  produce 
a  marked  change  in  the  character  of  the  English 
Realm  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  and  the  ac- 
cession of  William  and  Mary.  It  may  be  said  that 
the  traditional  conception  of  a  Christian  polity, 
with  a  well-ordered  religious  national  life,  fell  into 
desuetude;  although  formally  retained,  the  relig- 
ious factor,  as  a  dominant  influence,  was  elimi- 
nated. 

The  State  continued  to  acknowledge  religion, 
but  ceased  after  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne  to  make 
active  efforts  to  foster  or  promote  it.  This  was 
inevitable,  since  two  incompatible  ideals  of  what 
a  Christian  polity  should  be  were  simultaneously 
accepted  by  the  Crown.  Presbyterianism  became 
the  established  form  of  religious  organisation  in 
the  Scottish  Realm,  though  episcopacy  was  re- 
tained in  England,  and  this  course  was  confirmed 
by  Parliament  in  the  Act  of  Union.  This  politic 
indifference  to  the  religious  aspect  of  national  life 
was  a  bitter  disappointment  to  those  who  had 
sacrificed  much  for  the  Presbyterian  Theocracy, 
and  also  to  those  who  were  most  enthusiastic 
about  the  principles  for  which  the  English  Church 
had  suffered  terribly  under  the  Puritan  regime. 

115 


[CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

Indifference  to  religion  on  the  part  of  civil 
authority  was  noticeable,  not  only  at  home  but 
in  the  plantations.  In  the  colony  of  Carolina,  for 
which  the  constitution  was  drafted  by  John 
Locke,  the  religious  enthusiasm  which  had  had 
such  a  large  part  in  the  planting  of  other  settle- 
ments was  completely  absent.  The  Elizabethans 
would  never  have  thought  of  settling  a  body  of 
Roman  Catholics  in  the  New  World.  There  are 
no  signs  of  the  sense  of  national  mission,  which 
had  taken  hold  of  the  Elizabethans,  nor  of  the 
desire  to  establish  an  uncorrupt  Christian  com- 
munity, which  had  inspired  the  settlers  in  New 
England.  The  religious  motive  was  no  longer 
effective,  but  considerations  of  finding  employ- 
ment for  our  population  and  increasing  our  trade 
were  mainly  at  work:  the  economic  rather  than 
the  religious  aspect  of  society  was  becoming  a 
primary  consideration. 

John  Locke  not  only  helped  to  devise  a  consti- 
tutional scheme  for  a  new  colony,  but  formulated 
a  theory  of  civil  government  which  has  had  an 
extraordinary  influence  from  his  time  onwards. 
It  has  been  widely  welcomed  because  it  provides 
a  political  doctrine  from  which  religion  has  been 
practically  eliminated.  Civil  society  is  spoken  of 
as  based  on  purely  utilitarian  considerations,  and 
as  formed  by  individuals  who  enter  into  a  contract 

116 


INDEPENDENTS  AND  CONSCIENCE 

with  one  another  to  sacrifice  some  of  the  personal 
liberty  they  enjoyed,  on  account  of  the  greater 
advantages  which  accrued  to  them  by  living  to- 
gether in  society.  The  Independents  had  con- 
ceived all  Churches  as  gathered  by  the  association 
of  individuals  into  a  solemn  Covenant  with  God, 
while  Locke  conceived  of  the  State  as  formed  by 
a  prudential  contract  of  individuals  with  one  an- 
other. The  Independents  had  found  it  hard  to 
combine  submission  to  authority  with  the  con- 
viction of  the  supremacy  of  the  individual  con- 
science, and  Locke  and  his  followers  have  had  the 
same  difficulty  in  devising  a  duty  of  civil  obedi- 
ence, and  of  showing  how  the  liberty  of  the  indi- 
vidual is  to  be  rendered  compatible  with  the 
authority  of  the  State. 

V.    THE   GROUNDS   OF   CIVIL   OBEDIENCE 

There  is  an  obvious  incompatibility  between 
the  duty  of  obedience  to  the  Crown  as  it  was  put 
forward  and  acted  upon  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth, 
and  the  assertion  of  the  supremacy  of  the  con- 
scientious conviction  of  individuals.  In  her  days 
the  Crown  had  been  solely  responsible  for  the 
public  good,  and  it  was  by  obedience  to  the 
Crown  that  the  subject  was  best  able  to  contrib- 
ute his  efforts,  in  co-operation  with  other  subjects, 
for  the  common  good.  Loyalty  and  obedience  to 

117 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

the  Crown  were  regarded  as  almost  the  sole  duty 
of  the  subject;  but  even  though  we  regard  the 
view  that  was  then  commonly  held  as  exagger- 
ated, the  duty  of  obedience  remains,  and  is  still 
incumbent  on  all  the  members  of  a  community. 
Citizenship  in  a  democratic  state  has  a  two-fold 
character;  the  citizen  has  a  voice  in  the  govern- 
ment of  the  country  and  helps  to  decide  what  the 
law  shall  be,  but  he  is  also  a  subject  who  must 
obey  the  law.  The  fact  that  he  has  the  privilege 
of  sharing  in  the  responsibilities  of  government 
does  not  absolve  him  from  the  duty  of  obedience. 
When  the  decision  of  the  country  is  once  taken  on 
any  point  of  policy,  the  citizen,  who  may  think 
that  that  decision  is  mistaken,  is  no  longer  justi- 
fied in  setting  up  his  own  judgment  against  that 
of  the  community  of  which  he  forms  a  part. 
When  the  government  of  a  country  has  decided 
upon  going  to  war,  the  citizen,  who  is  opposed  to 
all  wars,  is  bound  to  acquiesce,  at  any  rate  by 
silence,  so  as  not  to  weaken  the  hands  of  his 
countrymen  in  the  struggle  on  which  they  have 
entered.^  In  democratic,  as  in  other  communi- 
ties, the  conflict  between  personal  conviction  and 

^  This  acquiescence  need  not  involve  any  tampering  with  con- 
science. If  there  were  a  definite  conflict  between  his  conscientious 
conviction  and  the  demands  of  the  government  for  his  active  obedi- 
ence, as  in  the  conscription  of  a  Quaker,  he  could  save  his  conscience 
by  firmly  refusing  to  serve,  and  at  the  same  time  show  his  obedience 
to  the  State  by  submitting  to  the  punishment  imposed. 

118 


INDEPENDENTS  AND  CONSCIENCE 

civil  obedience  may  arise,  and  it  is  impossible  to 
deal  with  it  in  general  terms;  at  the  same  time 
some  considerations  may  be  adduced  which  help 
to  show  that,  if  the  difficulty  is  carefully  faced, 
reconciliation  may  not  be  impossible. 

It  was  pointed  out  in  the  seventeenth  century 
that  the  duty  of  civil  obedience  did  not  neces- 
sarily involve  an  active  compliance  with  the 
commands  of  a  civil  authority,  and  that  no  one 
was  bound  to  do,  at  the  bidding  of  man,  that 
which  he  consciously  believed  to  be  wrong  in  the 
sight  of  God;  he  could  sufficiently  show  his  respect 
for  the  civil  authority,  if,  while  refusing  to  do 
what  was  commanded,  he  submitted  without 
complaint  to  the  punishment.  William  Stubbs, 
whose  writings  against  the  hierarchy  had  led 
to  his  punishment  by  the  loss  of  a  hand,  showed 
his  respect  for  authority  by  immediately  using 
the  maimed  stump  to  lead  a  cheer  for  the 
Queen  under  whose  authority  he  had  suffered. 
The  story  of  the  three  Jewish  youths,  who  re- 
fused to  obey  Nebuchadnezzar  and  submitted 
cheerfully  to  the  punishment  he  imposed,  was  a 
scriptural  instance  which  was  habitually  urged 
in  this  connection;  but  under  changed  circum- 
stances it  is  hardly  possible  for  anyone  to  show 
his  respect  for  authority  by  the  manner  in  which 

119 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

he  submits  to  punishment.  His  punishment  is 
sure  to  be  taken  up  by  a  section  of  the  pubKc,  and 
to  be  used  as  a  means  for  agitating  against  the 
manner  in  which  authority  has  been  exercised. 
Passive  obedience,  as  practised  in  the  sixteenth  or 
seventeenth  centuries,  was  a  genuine  method  of 
expressing  respect  for  civil  authority,  but  passive 
resistance,  as  recommended  in  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury, has  merely  been  an  insidious  method  for 
paralyzing  civil  authority  and  bringing  it  into 
contempt. 

Again,  in  a  democratic  community,  the  duty  of 
civil  obedience  does  not  involve  abject  subservi- 
ence, or  abandonment  of  a  claim  to  resist  in  self- 
defence.  The  private  individual  is,  by  common 
consent,  justified  in  appealing  to  force  in  self- 
defence,  and  in  a  free  government,  no  man  is 
bound  to  divest  himself  of  his  civil  rights.  There 
may  be  resistance  to  the  King's  advisers  and  ad- 
ministrators on  the  part  of  those  who  hold  "that 
**the  King  can  do  no  wrong,"  but  that  his  Minis- 
ters have  been  guilty  of  encroachment  on  the 
rights  of  the  subject.  Hampden's  refusal  to  pay 
ship-money  was  not  so  much  disobedience  as  a 
form  of  raising  a  grievance,  and  bringing  it  for- 
ward to  be  settled  by  law.  Further,  there  may  be  a 
question  as  to  the  title  of  anyone  to  exercise  rule. 
There  were  conscientious  men  who  rejected  the 

120 


INDEPENDENTS  AND  CONSCIENCE 

title  of  the  Austrians  to  rule  in  Lombardy,  or  of 
the  German  Empire  to  authority  in  Alsace.  The 
protest  against  usurped  and  arbitrary  power  may 
arise  in  many  democracies  owing  to  the  difficulty 
of  determining  whether  some  particular  adminis- 
tration is  giving  effect  to  the  will  of  the  people  or 
not.^  This  is  the  ground  on  which  the  Ulster  Cov- 
enanters have  taken  their  stand,  while  strongly 
asserting  their  loyalty  to  the  British  Crown  and 
the  British  flag. 

While  the  duty  of  obedience  is  no  longer  pressed 
in  such  an  absolute  form  as  was  once  the  case, 
there  is  in  the  present  day  a  great  readiness  to  as- 
sert conscientious  conviction  as  paramount,  and 
as  something  which  it  is  a  duty  to  insist  upon  at 
all  hazards;  but  there  is  at  least  a  presumption 
that  anyone,  who  thus  constitutes  himself  a  su- 
preme judge  of  what  ought  to  be  done  in  the  com- 
munity, and  insists  upon  giving  effect  to  his  con- 
viction, if  need  be  by  force,  is  mistaken.  There 
can  be  no  pretension  that  it  is  ever  right  for  the 
private  individual  to  avenge  his  private  griev- 
ances himself,  and  it  is  difficult  to  contend  that 
this  is  either  the  best  or  the  only  way  by  which 
what  are  felt  to  be  public  wrongs  can  be  righted. 

Defiance  of  authority,  with  an  appeal  to  force 

*  A.  Lawrence  Lowell,  Public  Opinion  and  Popular  Government,  12. 

121 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

in  connection  with  any  alleged  injustice,  is  cer- 
tainly evidence  of  the  reality  of  a  grievance  and 
the  earnestness  of  those  who  desire  to  have  it 
removed.  Their  conduct  is  commonly  excused  on 
the  plea  that  force  and  defiance  of  the  Govern- 
ment is  the  only  method  by  which  the  desired 
concession  can  be  wrung  from  the  Government. 
But  this  plea  is  not  convincing;  it  is  often  said  that 
the  peasants  succeeded  in  shaking  of!  serfdom  by 
their  rebellion  in  1381;  but  the  more  the  case  is 
considered,  the  more  it  may  be  doubted  whether 
their  appeal  to  force  did  much  to  improve  their 
condition.  The  process  of  commuting  personal 
service  for  a  money  compensation  had  been  going 
on  rapidly  before  the  time  of  the  revolt;  it  is  not 
clear  that  it  was  greatly  accelerated.  In  Scotland, 
where  there  was  no  peasants'  revolt,  the  rural 
population  obtained  to  economic  freedom  and 
shook  off  the  vestiges  of  serfdom  much  earlier 
than  they  did  in  England,  and  the  economic  con- 
dition of  the  labourer  in  some  of  the  English  coun- 
ties to  which  the  revolt  did  not  spread,  has  long 
been  as  good,  or  better,  than'that  of  the  labourers 
in  Kent  or  Essex;  nor  is  it  evident  that  the  ma- 
terial prosperity  of  the  French  peasantry  was  im- 
proved by  the  Revolution.  So  far  as  these  stock 
instances  go,  it  is  not  clear  that  appeal  to  force 
justified  itself  by  its  successes,  for  it  must  be  re- 

122 


INDEPENDENTS  AND  CONSCIENCE 

membered  that  this  method  for  securing  a  remedy 
is  very  clumsy  and  expensive.  Those  who  entered 
on  the  Civil  War,  to  defend  English  constitutional 
liberties  against  the  encroachments  of  Charles, 
may  well  have  been  disappointed  at  the  result 
which  was  achieved,  when  the  military  despotism 
of  Cromwell  was  thrust  upon  them;  there  had 
not  been  a  very  decided  gain  for  constitutional 
liberty  in  spite  of  all  the  expenditure  of  blood  and 
treasure.  There  may  be  good  reason  to  defy  civil 
authority  and  resist  it,  if  there  is  a  high  probability 
of  success  in  establishing  a  better  system  of  gov- 
ernment; but  it  must  always  be  a  political  crime 
to  try  and  obtain  a  particular  privilege  by  means 
which  hamper  the  exercise  of  authority  or  bring 
it  into  contempt. 

The  reckless  assertion  of  individual  convictions 
has  been  greatly  encouraged  by  the  more  general 
acceptance  of  the  view  of  the  State  as  a  mere  ag- 
gregate of  atoms,  and  the  inability  to  look  at  the 
community  as  an  organic  whole.  ^  If  the  commu- 
nity has  no  real  life  of  its  own,  but  is  a  mere  name 
for  a  greater  or  larger  mass  of  individual  human 
beings,  there  is  diflSculty  in  conceiving  of  any 
duty  to  the  community,  or  of  thinking  of  it  apart 
from  private  activities.    We  can  trace  the  play  of 

1  Cunningham,  Christianity  and  Economic  Science,  86. 

123 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

individual  interests,  present  and  to  come,  in  eco- 
nomic science,  and  we  can  lay  stress  upon  the 
power  of  humanitarian  sentiment  and  the  princi- 
ples of  ethical  science.  We  may  be  satisfied  to  be 
swayed  by  one  or  other  of  these  considerations  in 
turn;  but  we  can  hardly  hope  to  be  self -consistent, 
or  to  bring  these  two  sides  into  relation,  unless  we 
have  some  such  conception  as  that  of  duty,  in 
which  considerations  of  interest  and  of  sentiment 
may  each  find  a  proper  place.  Economic  science 
can  enlighten  us  as  to  certain  evils  we  would  do 
well  to  avoid,  and  sentiment  may  supply  a  driv- 
ing force  to  initiate  improvement,  but  the  two 
sides  must  be  brought  together  if  we  are  to  have 
a  real  guide  to  progress. 

Though  we  may  analyse  the  community  into 
the  individuals  who  compose  it,  we  cannot  account 
for  individual  rights  or  aspirations  without  look- 
ing beyond  them.  Each  of  us  has  been  placed 
under  obligations  by  the  social  system,  and  the 
developed  material  conditions  in  which  we  have 
been  born;  we  have  relations  of  neighbourliness 
to  our  fellow-citizens  in  our  own  locality  and  our 
own  country,  and  we  are  bound  to  strive  to  pass 
on  to  others  a  civilised  society  that  is  as  good  or 
better  than  that  which  has  been  our  heritage. 
The  national  life  has  a  character  of  its  own,  and  is 
not  a  mere  stream  of  individual  lives,  each  guided 

124 


INDEPENDENTS  AND  CONSCIENCE 

by  its  private  tastes  and  interests.  The  sense  of 
membership  of  a  community  and  obHgations  to 
the  community  have  been  an  inspiration  for  the 
heroes  of  the  past,  who  devoted  themselves  to 
the  cause  of  their  country;  and  there  cannot  be 
a  wholesome  life  in  the  present,  unless  men  are 
prepared  to  admit  their  obligations  to  the  com- 
munity as  a  whole  and  are  ready  to  discharge 
them  at  some  sacrifice. 

The  sense  of  duty  to  the  community  is  a  very 
real  force  in  the  present  day,  and  it  is  not  easy  to 
account  for  it  on  rational  grounds,  if  we  acquiesce 
in  the  elimination  of  the  religious  element  from 
politics.  Why,  anyone  may  ask,  should  I  be  taxed 
to  provide  education  for  the  community?  If  I  have 
no  children,  the  facilities  for  instruction  are  no 
good  for  me.  Why  should  I  pay  for  an  Army  and 
Navy  if  I  disapprove  of  war?  Why  should  I  de- 
velop resources  for  the  benefit  of  posterity  since 
posterity  has  never  done  anything  for  me?  Why 
should  I  yield  obedience  to  the  magistrate  unless 
I  see  that  it  is  my  interest  to  do  so  ?  To  the 
religious  man,  whether  Theist  or  Christian,  such 
self-interested  questionings  seem  idle  and  irrele- 
vant, and  the  answers  are  plain. 

The  religious  man  believes  that  God  governs 
the  world,  that  the  destiny  of  the  nation  is  in  His 
hands,  and  that  it  is  through  them  that  He 

125 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

accomplishes  His  purpose  for  Mankind.  In  His 
Providence  the  civil  ruler  has  come  to  wield 
earthly  power;  and  by  rendering  what  is  Caesar's 
to  Caesar  we  are  rendering  obedience  to  the  God 
Who  has  placed  him  where  he  is.  St.  Paul  elabo- 
rates the  argument  and  says,  "Let  every  soul  be 
"subject  unto  the  higher  powers.  For  there  is  no 
"power  but  of  God:  the  powers  that  be  are  or- 
"dained  of  God.  Whosoever  therefore  resisteth 
"the  power,  resisteth  the  ordinance  of  God:  and 
"they  that  resist  shall  receive  to  themselves  dam- 
"  nation.  For  rulers  are  not  a  terror  to  good  works, 
"but  to  the  evil.  Wilt  thou  then  not  be  afraid  of 
"the  power?  Do  that  which  is  good,  and  thou 
"  shalt  have  praise  of  the  same.  For  he  is  the  min- 
"  ister  of  God  to  thee  for  good.  But  if  thou  do  that 
"which  is  evil,  be  afraid;  for  he  beareth  not  the 
"sword  in  vain;  for  he  is  the  minister  of  God,  a 
"revenger  to  execute  wrath  upon  him  that  doeth 
"evil.  Wherefore  ye  must  needs  be  subject,  not 
"only  for  wrath  but  also  for  conscience  sake." 
Such  Christian  teaching  gives  us  light  as  to  the 
real  nature  of  the  obligations  we  owe  to  the 
community,  while  it  also  furnishes  us  with  an 
incentive  for  doing  these  duties  at  some  personal 
sacrifice. 


V 

RELIGION  AND  PUBLIC  SPIRIT 
I.    SELF-DISCIPLINE   AND   GROWTH 

The  Ecclesiastical  Courts  had  been  so  unpopu- 
lar as  to  become  a  political  danger  under  James  I 
and  Charles  I,  and  little  attempt  was  made  to  re- 
vive them  after  the  Restoration.  They  were  not 
used  to  enforce  the  observance  of  fish  days,  and 
such  secular  ordinances;  and  in  so  far  as  ecclesias- 
tical discipline  was  re-introduced,  it  seems  to  have 
dealt  chiefly  with  moral  offences,  such  as  drunken- 
ness and  slander.  In  this  modified  form  it  did 
indeed  give  rise  to  some  complaint,  but  there 
never  seems  to  have  been  any  general  attempt  to 
enforce  it  systematically,  and  we  hear  little  of  it 
after  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  when 
Bishop  Wilson  tried  to  re-introduce  it  in  the  Isle 
of  Man.^  In  so  far  as  this  religious  discipline  was 
revived,  we  see  that  it  had  a  somewhat  different 
character  from  that  enforced  in  the  Presbyterian 
theocracies.  There  the  end  in  view  had  been  the 
preservation  of  the  Christian  community  from 

^  J.  Wickham  Legg,  English  Church  Life,  256.  For  instances  of 
public  penance  in  Yorkshire  in  1731  see  Whytehead,  "Discipline 
of  the  Church,"  in  Yorkshire  Archaeological  Journal^  xix,  80. 

127 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

scandal;  but  the  aim  of  those  who  desired  to  re- 
store ecclesiastical  discipline  in  England  was  to 
bring  about  the  repentance  and  restoration  of  the 
sinner  personally.  The  Commination  Service, 
and  the  public  discipline  of  which  it  is  an  echo, 
were  intended  to  be  a  definite  call  to  repentance 
on  the  part  of  sinners,  in  the  hope  that  they  would 
use  the  season  of  Lent  aright,  and  could  thus  be 
restored  to  communion  at  Easter. 

The  tendency  of  the  Calvinistic  doctrine  of  pre- 
destination and  election  had  been  to  throw  the 
need  of  individual  growth  in  the  religious  life 
somewhat  into  the  background;  but  the  religious 
revival,  which  arose  under  the  influence  of  Cosin, 
Thorndyke,  and  other  Caroline  divines,  was  a 
conscious  reaction  against  Calvinism.  Though 
external  discipline  remained  in  abeyance,  there 
is  ample  evidence  that  large  numbers  of  Church- 
men were  trying  to  live  more  strictly,  and  to  dis- 
cipline themselves  to  comply  with  the  standard  of 
Christian  life  embodied  in  the  Prayer  Booh.  Care 
was  taken  to  provide  opportunities  for  daily 
prayer  by  ecclesiastical  authorities,^  and  daily 
services  were  very  generally  available  in  London 
churches  in  1714,^   though  the  numbers  rapidly 

*  J.  Wickham  Legg,  English  Church  Life,  79. 
2  James  Paterson,  Pietas  Lundinensis;  also  Strypes  Stow  (1720), 
bk.  V,  p.  19. 

128 


RELIGION   AND   PUBLIC   SPIRIT 

declined  after  this  date;  special  attention  was 
called  by  the  Bishop  of  Ely  to  the  desirability  of 
providing  opportunities  for  daily  prayer  at  vil- 
lages that  lay  along  the  great  North  Road.^  There 
is  every  reason  to  believe  much  greater  advantage 
was  taken  of  these  services  by  parishioners  at  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  than  in  the 
twentieth  when  they  have  been  once  more  gener- 
ally revived.    More  remarkable  evidence  still  is 

1  Dr.  Stevens,  Vicar  of  Tadlow,  has  kindly  given  me  a  copy  of  an 
interesting  letter  in  his  possession,  from  Dr.  Turner  —  one  of  the 
Seven  Bishops  —  to  Mr.  Say  of  Caxton:  — 

Ely,  Sept.  11.  1686. 

Good  Brother,  —  The  good  character  I  have  received  concerning 
you  from  our  R[oyal]  Mistress  in  Holland,  has  given  me  a  particular 
confidence  in  yr:  care  to  putt  the  Direction's  of  my  printed  letter  in 
practise.  Yr  parish,  if  it  be  not  so  numerous  as  I  suppos'd  yet  lyes  on 
the  Great  Northern  Roade :  it  would  be  for  our  churches  Honor  and 
for  the  consolation  of  well  dispos'd  Travellers  to  find  Daily  Prayers 
in  yr:  Church.  I  press  them  all  over  the  Diocese  where  it  is  practica- 
ble, but  at  Caxton  I  wd :  have  them  by  all  means,  tho'  you  begin  with 
a  congregation  of  butt  a  widdow  or  two.  Have  them  if  you  please  at 
six  or  seven  in  the  morning,  if  that  will  be  best  for  passengers.  My 
good  friend  you  have  been  bredd  in  a  camp  of  Toyle  and  Hardship. 
I  know  the  putting  my  orders  in  execution,  that  is  the  making  so 
many  careless  people  Christian  indeed,  will  cost  you  a  great  deale  of 
Labour:  but  do  not  grudge  it;  you  are  sure  of  as  great  a  Reward  in 
Heaven;  and  in  good  time  you  may  find  you  account  by  it  here,  for  I 
do  not  forget  what  her  Highness  commanded  in  favour  of  you,  and 
now  I  give  it  to  you  under  my  own  hand  that  I  will  remember  it  to 
your  advantage;  you  shall  not  stay  long  at  Caxton  if  I  can  help  it. 
But  in  the  meantime  do  your  own  Business  with  all  your  might,  and 
sett  into  its  presently  before  the  Visitation;  By  which  you  will  more 
than  a  little  oblige.  Sir, 

Yr:  affect,  friend  &  Brother, 
Mr.  Say  of  Caxton.  Fran.  Ely. 

P.S.  If  you  have  no  little  schoole  in  yr:  town  I  shall  wonder,  and 
you  ought  to  procure  one.  If  there  bee  one,  then  you  need  not  want 
a  congregation  for  both  morning  and  evening  prayers. 

129 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

furnished  by  the  number  of  voluntary  societies 
which  were  formed  for  mutual  encouragement  in 
the  devout  life;  a  very  interesting  account  of  them 
is  given  by  John  Chamberlayne  in  1708:  "The 
"Religious  Societies  are  so  called,  because  the 
"particular  end  and  design  of  them  is  to  improve 
"themselves  and  others  in  the  Knowledge  of  our 
"most  Holy  Religion,  and  to  animate  one  another 
"in  the  serious  practice  of  it.  They  were  begun  in 
"London  about  the  year  1678,  by  a  few  serious 
"young  men  of  the  communion  of  the  Church  of 
"England,  who,  by  the  Advice  and  Direction  of 
"their  Spiritual  Guides  agreed  to  meet  together 
"frequently  for  religious  Conference,  and  by 
"Prayer  and  Psalmodie  to  edifie  one  another. 
".  .  .  They  industriously  apply  themselves  to 
"the  relieving  poor  Families  and  Orphans,  set- 
"ting  Prisoners  at  Liberty,  solliciting  Charities 
"for  the  pious  Education  of  poor  Children,  Visit- 
"ing  and  Comforting  those  that  are  Sick  and  in 
"Prison,  and  Reclaiming  the  Vicious  and  Disso- 
"lute;  in  promoting  Christian  Conference,  Decency 
"  in  God's  Worship,  Family  Religion,  and  the  Cate- 
"chizing  of  young  and  ignorant  People."^  Simi- 
lar societies  were  formed  in  other  towns,  notably 
in  Truro. 2 

1  MagnoE  BritannioB  Notitia  (1708),  p.  276.  Compare  also  Strypes 
Stow,  bk.  V,  p.  40. 

2  J.  Wickham  Legg,  English  Church  Life,  299. 

130 


RELIGION   AND   PUBLIC   SPIRIT 

The  most  remarkable  development  was  among 
the  group  of  men  which  gathered  round  Wes- 
ley at  Oxford  and  gave  rise  to  the  great  reli- 
gious movement  which  still  bears  the  name  of 
Methodist.  The  genius  of  John  Wesley  used  the 
system,  which  had  been  devised  for  the  mutual 
encouragement  of  pious  men,  as  an  organ  of  mis- 
sion work,  and  for  the  strengthening  of  those  who 
were  impressed  by  the  power  of  his  preaching. 
Wesley's  own  position,  as  revealed  in  his  Jour- 
nal, is  somewhat  anomalous;  he  had  been  an 
enthusiast  for  the  maintenance  of  Christian 
institutions  as  established  in  the  land.  He  set 
himself  earnestly  to  live  up  to  them  in  Oxford,  and 
he  was  eager  in  trying  to  maintain  Church  dis- 
cipline among  the  people  in  Georgia.  He  had  a 
strong  sense  of  the  importance  of  Christian  rites, 
and  he  based  his  claim  to  preach  on  the  fact  that 
he  was  an  ordained  priest  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land. This  was  the  warrant  of  his  mission;  but 
while  he  relied  so  much  upon  ecclesiastical  order, 
he  thought  it  inadequate,  and  had  little  scruple 
in  waiving  it  aside.  His  sense  of  a  spiritual  mis- 
sion refused  to  be  restricted  by  the  bounds  of  the 
parochial  system;  "all  the  world  is  my  parish." 
He  believed  intensely  in  the  working  of  God's 
Spirit  in  the  individual  heart  and  conscience.  He 
accepted  the  Christian  polity  and  ecclesiastical 

131 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

ordinances  as  affording  a  useful  atmosphere;  but 
for  him,  fellowship  in  a  Christian  polity  was  a 
poor  thing,  unless  there  was  the  growth  of  per- 
sonal Christian  life.    His  followers  were  encour- 
aged to  provoke  one  another  to  love  and  good 
works  in  class  meetings,  and  to  stir  up  the  gift  that 
was  in  them;  but  the  societies  he  founded  were 
strictly  religious  societies,  and  were  concerned  in 
fostering  the  personal  religious  life  of  individuals. 
Wesley    did    not    differ    from    other    English 
churchmen  either  as  to  the  duty  of  maintaining 
religious  ordinances  within  the  realm,  or  the  im- 
portance of  diffusing  religious  truth  among  Eng- 
lishmen settled  abroad.  There  was  no  divergence 
from  the  current  view  of  the  duty  of  the  State; 
but  Wesley  left  it  to  others  to  discuss  the  manner 
in  which  these  national  duties  should  be  done. 
His  whole  energy  was  devoted  to  fostering  the 
growth  of  spiritual  life  in  individuals.    In  so  far 
as  he  paid  attention  to  secular  affairs  in  political 
life  he  was  only  concerned  to  notice  how  they  re- 
acted on  the  personal  religion  of  men  and  women. 
From  this  standpoint   he  is  inclined  to  depre- 
cate earthly  cares  and  worldly  interests  as  un- 
favourable   to    spiritual    progress.     He    feared 
material  prosperity  as  a  danger  to  Methodism. 
"Religion,"  he  said,^  "must  necessarily  produce 

1  Southey's  Lije,  u,  522. 
132 


RELIGION   AND   PUBLIC   SPIRIT 

**both  industry  and  frugality,  and  these  cannot 
"but  produce  riches.  But  as  riches  increase,  so 
*'  will  pride,  anger,  and  love  of  the  world  in  all  its 
"branches.  How  then  is  it  possible  that  Meth- 
"  odism,  that  is,  a  religion  of  the  heart,  though  it 
"  flourishes  now  like  a  green  bay  tree,  should  con- 
"  tinue  in  this  state  .^^  For  the  Methodists  in  every 
"place grow  diligent  and  frugal,  consequently  they 
"  increase  in  goods.  Hence  they  proportionately 
"  increase  in  pride,  in  anger,  in  the  lust  of  the 
"  flesh,  the  desire  of  the  eyes  and  the  pride  of  life." 
Ample  evidence  might  be  adduced  to  confirm  his 
view;  the  very  success  of  the  monasteries  as  cen- 
tres of  organised  economic  life,  had  been  prejudi- 
cial to  their  religious  tone  and'influence,  and  the 
experience  of  the  Society  of  Friends  has  been 
similar.  ^  In  his  sermon  on  the  use  of  money  Wes- 
ley warns  against  the  personal  sins  that  may  arise 
in  connection  with  earthly  gain.^  But  just  be- 
cause his  religious  teaching  is  so  personal,  he  has 
given  little  suggestion  as  to  the  moulding  of  so- 
ciety itself  on  Christian  lines,  or  as  to  the  means 
by  which  a  more  Christian  polity  may  be  secured. 
This  lay  beyond  his  purview;  indeed  it  is  one  of 
the  most  mteresting  points  of  contrast  between 

^  J.  J.  Fox,  Enquiry  into  the  Causes  of  the  Weakness  of  the  Society  of 
Friends  as  a  Christian  Church  (1859). 

2  The  Use  of  Money.  Wesleyan  Methodist  Union  for  Social 
Service,  Social  Tracts,  New  Series,  No.  1. 

133 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

the  work  of  John  Wesley  and  the  work  of  General 
Booth,  that  the  latter  realised  how  unfavorable 
physical  surroundings  may  be,  and  that  they 
often  may  prove  an  almost  insuperable  hinder- 
ance  to  the  growth  of  personal  religious  life.  The 
importance  of  material  conditions  in  regard  to 
the  outcast  and  the  miserable  has  been  the  most 
important  development  of  Salvation  Army  work; 
but  the  aim  in  view  has  been  that  of  Wesley,  in 
reclaiming  individuals,  rather  than  that  of  re- 
modelling society  itself. 

II.    THE   DUTIES   OF   THE   COMMUNITY 

There  is  very  little  trace  among  the  Calvinist 
communities  of  a  conscious  mission  to  the  world. 
The  Scottish  nation,  and  the  gathered  churches  in 
New  England,  were  keenly  conscious  of  their  posi- 
tion as  testifying  to  the  truth  —  like  a  city  set  on 
a  hill;  but  they  inherited  the  Old  Testament  at- 
titude of  mind;  and  they  had  little  sense  of  a  duty 
towards  heathen  peoples  which  was  incumbent 
upon  a  Christian  nation.  But  in  England  the 
sense  of  the  destiny  and  of  the  duties  of  the  nation 
had  never  died  out;  it  had  been  awakened  by  the 
danger  of  absorption  by  Spain  in  Tudor  times, 
and  it  was  quickened  by  the  threats  of  French  en- 
croachment. Seventeenth  and  eighteenth  century 
sermons  afford  ample  evidence  of  the  manner  in 

134 


RELIGION   AND   PUBLIC   SPIRIT 

which  this  and  the  other  Christian  duties  of  the 
community  were  kept  before  the  pubKc  mind,  and 
show  that  this  central  conviction  was  the  founda- 
tion of  teaching  in  regard  to  the  duties  of  Chris- 
tian men  in  their  social  relations.  The  most  ob- 
vious duties,  in  the  period  before  the  Industrial 
Revolution,  were  not  the  same  as  those  which 
claim  attention  at  the  present  day;  but  the  dusty 
volumes  and  forgotten  pamphlets  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  give  ample  proof  that  preachers 
inculcated  high  ideals  of  national  life.  During 
the  seventeenth  century  and  the  early  part  of  the 
eighteenth  the  pulpit  exercised  a  remarkable  in- 
fluence. Pulpit  eloquence  was  cultivated  as  a 
rhetorical  art,  both  in  France  and  England;  and 
well-selected  libraries  of  literature  contained  a 
large  number  of  volumes  of  sermons.  Before  news- 
papers came  into  general  use,  they  were  the  most 
effective  channel  for  influencing  public  opinions; 
there  were  many  benefactions  for  providing  spe- 
cial sermons,  and  official  sermons  were  regularly 
preached  before  public  bodies.  We  have  there- 
fore a  large  body  of  evidence  so  little  known  even 
to  students,^  that  it  seems  desirable  to  quote  con- 
siderable passages  at  length,  in  order  to  give  an  idea 
of  current  teaching  on  political  and  social  duty. 

^  Copies  of  most  of  the  sermons  quoted  are  accessible  in  the 
British  Musemn  Library. 

135 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

The  sense  of  a  mission  to  the  world,  which  had 
been  so  strongly  felt  by  the  Elizabethan  pioneers 
of  empire,  was  kept  alive  and  reinforced;  and  this 
comes  out  especially  in  connection  with  the  plant- 
ing of  Georgia.  In  preaching  before  the  trustees, 
Glocester  Ridley  insisted  that  the  economic  ob- 
jects which  he  enumerated  should  be  subordi- 
nated to  religious  aims.  "Prudential  and  human 
"motives  are  but  the  intermediate  wheels  and 
"springs  of  Providence,  which  the  all- wise  Con- 
"ductor  employs  to  produce  a  much  grander 
"effect,  the  general  and  eternal  welfare  of  man- 
"kind.  .  .  .  The  reasons  before  mentioned  are 
"very  justifiable  and  commendable  motives  of 
"themselves;  but  when  ranked,  where  Provi- 
"dence  esteems  them  in  subordination  to  better, 
"and  only  as  a  means  subservient  to  a  nobler 
"end,  the  design  of  planting  Georgia  is  a  glorious 
"effort  of  the  human  mind,  reflects  the  highest 
"honour  on  those  engaged  in  it,  deserves  the 
"prayers  and  concurrence  of  all  good  men,  and 
"may  depend  upon  the  assistance  of  heaven  to 
"accomplish  His  own  decrees."  The  same  doc- 
trine was  reinforced  by  the  Reverend  George 
Harvest  in  1749.  "The  relation  in  which  we  stand 
"to  the  Western  Isles,  by  the  appointment  of 
"Providence,  has  afforded  us  an  opportunity  of 
"propagating  the  Gospel  among  their  inhabit- 

136 


(( 
t( 
<( 
(( 


RELIGION   AND   PUBLIC   SPIRIT 

"ants.  This  relation  obliges  us,  as  a  Christian 
"nation  in  Society,  to  endeavour  to  promote  both 
"their  temporal  and  eternal  interests.  And  even 
"supposing,  not  admitting,  supposing  I  say  the 
"Utility  of  this  Colony  of  Georgia  to  be  yet 
a  matter  of  some  doubt  and  uncertainty,  I 
will  however  appeal  to  the  Christian  politician 
whether  the  glorious  prospect  of  promoting  Re- 
ligion —  which  is  above  all  else  valuable  —  the 
"salvation  of  souls,  .  .  .  the  extending  of  the 
"Kingdom  of  God  upon  earth,  —  whether  these 
"be  not  things  of  infinitely  greater  moment  than 
"any  Temporal  Emoluments  or  Advantages." 

Bishop  Terrick  of  Peterborough,  when  preach- 
ing before  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel,  urged  that  our  successes  in  the  Seven 
Years'  War,  "great  in  themselves  and  glorious 
"to  the  British  arms,  have  extended  our  Em- 
"pire  and  opened  a  large  field,  which  in  every 
"view,  whether  of  Religion  or  Civil  Policy, 
"demands  our  culture  and  improvement.  This 
"is  indeed  an  object  too  great  and  extensive 
"for  the  abilities  of  this  Society:  it  is  a  Na- 
"tional  concern,  and  will,  I  doubt  not,  be  con- 
"sidered  with  the  attention  it  deserves.  It  would 
"indeed  add  a  lustre  to  the  glories  of  a  successful 
"war,  could  we  trace  the  progress  of  true  Chris- 
"tianity,  wherever  our  arms   have  conquered, 

137 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

"and  by  introducing  the  Arts  of  Civil  life  and 
"the  milder  genius  of  a  pure  Religion,  could 
"boast  of  the  triumphs  of  Truth  and  Knowledge 
"over  Popish  error  and  Heathen  ignorance.  This 
"would  be  an  event,  which  would  shine  in  the 
"Annals  of  our  History,  and  do  honour  to  our 
"National  character.  And  sure  it  may  be  con- 
"sidered  as  a  circumstance,  which,  as  it  gives 
"the  most  favourable  impressions  of  the  Spirit 
"of  our  Religion,  we  hope  may  have  some  influ- 
"ence  in  preparing  the  way  for  its  more  general 
**  reception;  that  wherever  the  natural  courage  of 
"our  troops  led  them  on  to  Victory,  the  mild  and 
"generous  temper  of  the  Gospel  disposed  them  to 
"triumph  with  humanity."  At  a  later  date  the 
duty  of  living  up  to  new  national  responsibilities 
was  borne  in  mind;  during  the  Napoleonic  wars 
an  earnest  warning  was  given  by  Dr.  Carey,  in 
a  sermon  preached  before  the  House  of  Com- 
mons as  to  the  danger  of  looking  at  merely  mate- 
rial interests  in  our  relations  with  the  world.  He 
pointed  out  that  the  lust  of  commerce  is  as  great 
an  enemy  to  the  peace  of  the  world  as  the  lust 
of  Empire,  and  that  the  spirit  of  commerce  may 
easily  degenerate  into  a  spirit  of  avarice  and 
greediness  and  even  of  oppression.  The  effort  to 
maintain  high  ideals  of  national  life  has  been 
steadily  pursued  by  pulpit  orators,  and  found 

138 


RELIGION   AND   PUBLIC   SPIRIT 

admirable  expression  in  Dr.  Whewell's  sermon 
before  the  Corporation  of  Trinity  House  in  1835.^ 

1  This  carries  the  chain  of  testimony  farther.    "  And  though  the 
ways  of  Providence  must  ever  be  to  us  dim  and  mysterious,  and 
though  a  reflection  which  thus  points  at  them  may  appear  to  be 
vague  and  unsubstantial,  we  shall  yet,  I  think,  find  in  it  something 
which  may  breathe  a  warmer  air  of  love,  and  a  nobler  glow  of  hope, 
over  the  machinery  of  our  national  prosperity.  For,  can  we  doubt 
that  this  nation  has  been  invested  with  wealth  and  power,  with  arts 
and  knowledge,  with  the  sway  of  distant  lands  and  the  mastery 
of  the  restless  waters,  for  some  great  and  important  purpose  in  the 
government  of  the  world,  by  Him  who  guides  the  course  of  nations? 
Can  we  suppose  otherwise,  than  that  it  is  our  office  to  carry  civili- 
zation and  humanity,  peace  and  good  government,  and,  above  all, 
the  knowledge  of  the  true  God,  to  the  uttermost  ends  of  the  earth  ? 
When  we  see  how  the  political  power  of  ancient  Rome,  the  extent 
and  unity  of  the  great  empire  of  antiquity,  ministered  to  the  diffu- 
sion first,  and  afterwards  to  the  ascendancy,  of  the  religion  of 
Christ;  can  we  doubt  that  God  uses  the  institutions  of  men  for  the 
furtherance  of  His  own  secret  counsels?   Can  we  doubt  that  the 
command  which  man,  in  modern  times,  has  acquired  over  the  ele- 
ments; the  facility  with  which  he  visits  the  remotest  regions;  the 
rapidity  with  which  the  discoveries  and  inventions  and  thoughts 
'of  one  country  are  borne  to  the  ears  of  all;  the  power  that  cilivized 
'nations  now  possess  in  comparison  of  those  that  are  barbarous;  the 
'ascendancy  which  opinion  has  acquired  over  brute  force;    the 
'supremacy  of  mind  over  matter  —  can  we  doubt,  I  say,  that  all 
'these  circumstances  are  intended  to  do  their  work  in  carrying  on 
'mankind  to  a  better  knowledge  of  their  duties  and  their  hopes;  in 
'  advancing  them  a  further  step  in  that  school  of  moral  and  religious 
'  education  in  which  God  is  ever  instructing  them?  And,  thus  view- 
'ing  the  history  of  the  world,  the  offices  of  nations,  and  the  uses  of 
'their  powers,  we  cannot  doubt  that  all  our  gifts  also,  the  qualities 
'  and  possessions  which  belong  peculiarly  to  this  country,  are  given 
'us  for  improving  the  world,  as  well  as  advantaging  ourselves;  — 
'given  as  talents,  which  we  are  to  reverence  as  the  instruments  of 
'  high  purposes,  as  well  as  to  use  as  means  to  selfish  ends.  Our  place 
'  among  the  isles  of  the  ocean,  our  fair  havens  and  lofty  beacon-sites, 
'  our  commerce  and  our  fleets,  our  stores  and  treasures,  are  thus  held 
'by  us  as  subjects  and  servants  of  the  Governor  of  the  Universe. 
'  Nor  is  this  all :  our  better  and  finer  possessions,  our  advantages  of 
'  character  and  mind,  are  no  less  held  and  exercised  under  His  con- 
'trol  and  guidance;  —  the  endowments  of  the  soul,  courage  and 

139 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

There  was  very  little  official  response  to  these 
appeals,  on  the  part  either  of  officials  or  of  those 

"inventioD,  energy  and  endurance;  the  indomitable  will,  which  no  re- 
*'sistance  of  the  elemental  world  can  tame;  the  heart  which  can  brace 
"the  sinews  under  the  fierce  smiting  of  the  tropical  sun;  the  eye 
"which  can  look  steadfastly,  though  the  ice  close  round  like  a  tomb, 
**and  life  seem  departing  with  departing  hght  and  warmth;  the  tem- 
"per  on  which  hope  deferred  acts  only  as  a  fresh  stimulus  to  action; 
"the  sagacity  in  governing  distant  lands,  which  is  sharpened,  not 
"baflBed,  by  variety  of  circumstances.  Nor  can  we  less  believe,  that 
"the  benefits  which,  as  a  nation,  we  have  enjoyed,  are  gifts  which 
**  require  to  be  administered  for  the  purposes  of  the  great  Giver.  Our 
"long  course  of  health  and  wealth,  of  prosperity  and  happiness;  the 
"foresight  of  our  ancestors,  estabhshing  for  the  guardianship  and 
"  promotion  of  valuable  objects  peculiar  institutions,  fitted  to  avert 
"the  evil,  to  look  onward  to  the  good;  the  steady  course  of  our  his- 
"tory,  in  which,  however  changes  and  struggles  may  have  taken 
"  place,  such  institutions  have  always  ridden  buoyant  on  the  tossing 
"waves;  —  all  these  blessings  and  benefits,  which  we  perhaps  some- 
"  times  consider  as  mere  matters  of  pride  or  advantage  to  ourselves, 
"are,  in  truth,  in  the  scheme  of  God's  providence,  something  of  a 
"higher  bearing,  of  a  larger  scope.  They  are,  we  may  venture  to 
"believe,  the  instruments  of  a  good,  which  however  it  may  begin 
"  with  us,  is  to  extend  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth,  and  to  the 
"remotest  ages;  they  are  among  the  means  by  which  light  and  life,  a 
"  clearer  light  and  a  purer  life,  are,  as  we  trust,  to  be  diffused  to  the 
"isles  of  the  Gentiles;  by  which  the  reign  of  savage  usages,  of  blind- 
"ness  and  grossness,  shall  gradually  yield  to  law  and  reason,  to 
"moral  feelings  and  religious  influences.  We  cannot  and  need  not 
"trace  the  thousand  workings  by  which  we  improve  while  we  civilize 
"man;  by  which  the  teaching  of  mere  human  knowledge  and  refine- 
"  ment,  and  even  commerce  and  travel,  may  be  expected  to  prepare 
"  the  way  and  supply  the  means  of  religious  teaching,  in  future  times 
"as  they  have  done  in  times  past.  But  we  cannot  so  far  disbelieve 
"the  progress  of  the  better  cause,  as  not  to  hold,  that  the  activity 
"and  enterprise,  the  maritime  wealth  and  power,  of  the  most  active, 
"and  most  enterprising  nation,  and  the  most  powerful  on  the  ocean 
"of  any  which  God  ever  placed  on  the  earth,  will  be  mighty  to  pro- 
"duce  that  good  which  such  means  are  fitted  to  produce;  and  that 
"thus  they  are  part  of  that  great  machinery  which  is  to  go  on  work- 
"ing  till  the  knowledge  of  God  shall  cover  the  earth  as  the  waters 
"cover  the  sea. 

"  But,  considered  in  this,  point  of  view,  such  institutions  [as  Trin- 

140 


RELIGION   AND   PUBLIC   SPIRIT 

who  had  concessions  from  the  Crown,  like  the 
various  trading  companies  and  the  trustees  for 

ity  House]  seem  to  start  up  before  us  in  new  dignity  and  grandeur. 
If,  indeed,  the  naval  greatness  of  England  holds  such  a  place  in  the 
designs  of  Providence,  then  all  the  implements  of  that  greatness, 
all  the  functions  of  those  who  watch  over  and  minister  to  it,  ac- 
quire at  once  an  aspect  of  serious  and  elevated  importance.  If  her 
ships  and  fleets,  while  they  pass  to  and  fro,  are  thus  the  messengers 
of  civilization  and  Christianity,  as  well  as  the  bearers  of  wealth  and 
'  power,  we  may  well  be  careful  of  their  management,  and  tender  of 
'their  safety.  When  we  light  the  frail  skiff  round  the  stormy  prom- 
'ontory,  or  mark  for  it  a  safe  track  along  the  low  and  treacherous 

*  shore,  we  know  that  we  have  earthly  interests,  and  human  life,  the 
'dearest  of  earthly  interests,  depending  on  our  care;  but  that  is  not 
'all;  we  have  also  in  our  hands  a  portion  of  that  great  interest  of 
'advancing  peace,  and  knowledge,  and  truth,  of  which  the  good  ends 
'not  in  our  day,  nor  on  our  earth.  When  we  illuminate  and  direct 
'the  way  of  commerce  and  curiosity,  of  pleasure  and  gain,  over  the 
'  great  deep,  we  also  send  law  and  order  on  their  course,  we  light  the 
'  gospel  on  its  path,  we  make  the  way  easy  for  some  benefactor  of 

*  mankind  to  go  forth  on  his  errand  in  hope,  or  to  return  in  safety  to 
'his  native  land. 

"  'Be  not  forgetful  to  entertain  strangers,*  says  the  Apostle,  '  for 
'thereby  some  have  received  angels  unawares.'  Be  not  careless  or 
'  slothful  in  aught  that  concerns  the  safety  or  activity  of  the  naviga- 
'tion  of  this  country;  for  many  a  messenger  of  God  for  good,  con- 
'scious  or  unconscious  of  his  character,  is,  we  trust,  confided  to  its 
'charge.  How  can  we  doubt  that  the  office  of  our  shipping  in  pro- 
'  moting  the  progress  of  man's  improvement  is  most  important,  the 
'commission  of  those  who  are  the  guardians  of  its  safety  most 
'momentous,  when  we  consider  what  it  has  already  done?  It  has 
'  girdled  the  earth  with  the  arts,  the  laws,  the  knowledge,  the  faith 
'of  these  lands,  where  such  blessings  are  in  their  most  mature 
'growth  and  fairest  bloom;  it  has  more  than  once  been  a  bulwark 
'  against  a  tyrannous  and  iron  despotism,  seeking  to  trample  down 
'the  barriers  of  nations  in  its  barbarising  and  degrading  career;  it 
'has  called  forth  in  the  men  of  the  land  a  practical  strength  and 
'clearness  of  the  head,  an  energy  and  devotedness  of  the  heart, 
'  which  we  all  admire,  and  feel  that  we  ourselves  are  bettered  by  our 
'admiration,  for  virtue  is  stronger  by  the  sight  of  virtue.  The 
'empire  of  the  ocean  is  a  sacred  trust.  Well,  then,  may  we  rejoice 
'to  see  religious  offices  breathe  their  solemn  and  majestic  air  over 
'the  institutions  to  which  such  a  trust  gives  birth.   Well  may  we 

141 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

plantations.  After  the  Revolution  and  espe- 
cially after  the  long  Whig  Supremacy,  govern- 
ment practically  ceased  to  take  an  active  part 
in  fulfilling  the  national  mission  and  commend- 
ing Christianity  to  the  world.  Bishop  Berke- 
ley had  a  bitter  disappointment  in  finding  that 
the  political  leaders  on  whom  he  relied  had  no 
serious  intention  of  supporting  his  project  for  a 
Missionary  College  on  the  Bermudas  ^  and  that 
they  had  no  sympathy  for  schemes  for  fostering 
national  religion  among  the  colonists. 

So  far  as  the  material  prosperity  of  the  country 
was  concerned  it  seemed  to  be  sufiScient  for  gov- 
ernment to  guide  and  direct  those  who  were  push- 
ing their  own  business.  There  was  no  general 
recognition  of  the  danger  accruing  from  eager- 
ness to  make  a  fortune,  and  there  were  many 
who  recognised  the  benefit  which  accrues  to  the 
community  from  the  enterprise  of  self-interested 
individuals.  It  was  generally  felt  in  the  eighteenth 
century  that  so  far  as  the  landed  interests  were 
concerned  their  rents  were  secured,  and  that  they 

"recognize,  in  such  a  combination,  a  call  to  us  to  administer  all  that 
"concerns  so  mighty  a  train  of  operation  in  a  reverent  spirit,  as 
"becomes  those  who  are  engaged,  not  only  in  the  diffusion  and  mul- 
"tiplication  of  temporal  blessings,  but  also,  as  we  hope,  of  others  of 
"which  the  benefit  ends  not  with  temporal  things."  —  (From  the 
copy  in  the  Library  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.) 
1  Fraser,  Life  oj  Berkeley. 

142 


RELIGION   AND   PUBLIC  SPIRIT 

might  be  rightly  called  upon  to  do  a  duty  to  the 
community,  but  with  the  moneyed  interests  it 
was  different.  They  ran  great  risks  in  developing 
commerce,  in  planting  colonies  and  in  starting  in- 
dustries, and  it  was  possible  to  contend  that  in 
undertaking  such  risks  for  the  service  of  the  com- 
munity they  were  doing  all  that  could  be  required 
of  them,  and  that  they  had  no  further  duty.  Par- 
liament was  frequently  engaged  in  inducing  men 
to  enter  on  methods  of  employing  their  capital, 
which  would  be  of  advantage  to  the  State,  by 
offering  bounties  and  preferences;  and  those  who 
earned  such  public  rewards  might  well  feel  ex- 
empt from  any  duty  to  contribute  out  of  their 
gains  to  the  good  of  the  community.  The  State 
had  played  upon  their  self-interest,  and  self- 
interest  was  a  guide  to  their  public  duty.  This 
principle,  which  had  been  already  accepted  by 
Calvinist  moralists,  and  which  lies  at  the  root  of 
the  laissez-faire  system  of  economics,  was  not 
universally  accepted,  however,  and  it  was  severely 
criticised  by  the  Reverend  John  Geree  in  an 
Assize  Sermon  at  Winchester  in  1706. 

"And  then  it  mightily  imports  us  to  root  out  of 
"our  Minds  this  Principle  of  Self-interest,  this  in- 
"  ordinate  Desire  of  promoting  our  own  Advan- 
"tage,  tho'  by  methods  apparently  unjust;  so  the 
"first  thing  in  order  to  it,  is  to  examine  whence  a 

143 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

Humour,  now  so  generally  prevalent  and  reign- 
ing in  the  World,  does  proceed,  and  in  what  it  is 
founded:  and  that  is,  either  in  Luxury  and  Ex- 
travagance, for  the  feeding  and  supplying  of 
which  Men  are  forced  to  have  recourse  to  such 
unwarrantable  Practices;  or  else  in  Idleness, 
which  puts  them  upon  the  shorter  and  less  labo- 
rious methods  of  Fraud  and  Injustice,  for  the 
providing  those  Conveniences  which  Industry 
might  have  furnished  them  with;  or  lastly  in 
mistaken  notions  of  what  is  necessary  to  their 
Happiness,  which  enlarges  the  catalogue  of  their 
Wants,  and  renders  them  unsatisfied  with  an 
ordinary  Fortune,  tho'  more  than  Nature  re- 
quires, and  what  Frugality  perhaps  would  look 
upon  as  a  Competency.  Were  we  once  arrived  at 
this  Point,  that  we  could  retrench  our  Expences, 
and  confine  them  to  what  comports  best  with 
that  condition  wherein  Providence  has  placed 
us;  or  that  we  could  shake  of[f]  that  sloth 
which  ties  up  our  Hands  from  working  out  our 
Fortune;  or  could  rectify  our  notions  of  what  is 
really  and  truly  necessary  to  our  Happiness  in 
the  World,  and  square  them  by  the  Rules  of 
right  Reason;  our  Desires  would  then  be  easily 
reduced  within  the  compass  of  what  is  just  and 
honest.  We  should  not  then  be  tempted  to  con- 
clude all  our  own  that  we  could  get;  but  all  our 

144 


RELIGION  AND   PUBLIC  SPIRIT 

"own  when  we  had  satisfied  the  several  Ties  and 
"Obligations  that  lay  upon  us,  whether  of  Fidel- 
"ity  to  the  Publick  or  of  common  Justice  to  all 
"men;  of  Gratitude  to  Benefactors,  of  Charity  to 
"the  Poor,  of  Kindness  to  Relations  and  the  like. 
"And  I  instance  the  rather  on  Gratitude,  Charity 
"and  Natural  Affection,  because  these  by  Men 
"too  greedy  of  their  Interest,  are  so  commonly 
"over-lookt.    In  fine  it  might  be  presumed  that 
"then  we  should  acquit  ourselves  in  all  the  Parts 
"of  Duty  to  our  Neighbour,  keeping  Truth  in  our 
"Promises  and  Contracts,  so  as  not  to  disappoint 
''him  or  fail  in  our  Engagement  to  him,  tho'  the 
"Performance  of  it  should  prove  to  our  own 
"Hindrance,''^   This  was  a  forcible  exposure  of 
the  mistake  in  thinking  that,  so  long  as  a  man 
attends  to  his  private  duties  and  is  guided  in 
business  affairs  by  his  own  interest,  he  does  all 
that  can  be  rightly  required  of  him;  there  is  need 
as  well  of  consciousness  that  he  is  part  of  a  com- 
munity.   Each  individual  ought  to  be  willing  to 
take  the  trouble  of  doing  his  share  of  the  duties 
which  are  incumbent  upon  the  community,  and 
this  is  the  very  meaning  of  public  spirit.    The 

1  The  theme  was  a  favourite  with  those  who  were  called  on  to 
preach  anniversary  Sermons  to  the  gentlemen  who  had  been  edu- 
cated at  St.  Paul's.  Archdeacon  Tenison,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Os- 
sory,  recommended  a  public  spirit,  because  it  "produces  in  every  one 
"  of  us  an  extraordinary  diligence  in  the  discharge  of  the  duties  that 
"  belong  to  our  several  stations."  171 1. 

145 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

eighteenth  century  was  a  time  of  official  apathy, 
and  neglect  on  the  part  of  the  government,  to  live 
up  to  a  high  ideal  of  the  duty  of  the  community, 
but  it  was  also  a  time  when  the  foundations  of  a 
better  order  were  being  well  and  truly  laid.  Reli- 
gious influence  acting  on  individual  minds  was 
creating  a  sense  of  public  spirit  which  found  ex- 
pression in  humanitarian  measures  at  home,  and  a 
greater  sense  of  national  responsibility  for  native 
races  abroad.  Though  national  duties  and  respon- 
sibilities were  little  appreciated  by  civil  authori- 
ties, they  were  more  and  more  taken  up  by  private 
citizens  and  by  associations  of  private  persons. 

Commerce  and  colonisation  were  the  two  oc- 
casions of  contact  which  might  be  utilised  by 
individuals  or  associations  of  individuals  to 
supplement  official  action,  and  to  carry  out 
the  mission  of  a  Christian  nation.  Of  all  the 
regulated  companies,  the  Levant  Company  was 
that  which  came  into  most  direct  contact  with 
the  Mohammedan  world,  and  where  the  impor- 
tance of  maintaining  Christian  testimony  was 
most  strongly  felt;  there  were  eminent  men  who 
had  successfully  held  the  position  of  chaplain  at 
the  factory  in  Smyrna.  One  of  them.  Dr.  Chis- 
hull,^  in  appealing  to  the  members  of  the  Company 

^  Guildhall  Library. 
146 


RELIGION  AND   PUBLIC   SPIRIT 

in  1698  as  to  the  duty  of  conducting  commerce  to 
the  glory  of  God,  puts  forward  a  striking  concep- 
tion of  the  duty  of  the  Christian  merchant:  "As 
"the  example  of  each  single  person  is  always  to  be 
"measured  by  the  character  he  bears,  so  in  some 
"sense  it  is  true  that  none  bears  a  greater  charac- 
"ter  than  those  whom  Providence  has  ordained  to 
"any  foreign  employment.  For  the  charge  which 
"they  carry  with  them  is  in  truth  an  inestimable 
"charge;  no  less  than  the  credit  of  their  religion 
"and  their  native  Country.  They  ought  to  ap- 
" prove  themselves  abroad,  not  only  as  persons  of 
"sober  and  honest  conversation;  but,  what  is 
"much  more,  as  becomes  true  Englishmen  and 
"sincere  Christians." 

In  the  sermons  preached  before  the  Society  for 
the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  there  was  frequent 
appeal  to  the  London  merchants,  who  made  a 
profit  through  trade  with  non-Christian  peoples, 
to  discharge  an  obligation  which  was  specially  in- 
cumbent upon  them  by  deputy.  This  help,  says 
Bishop  Trimnell  of  Norwich  in  1710,  "is  more 
particularly  to  be  expected  from  such  persons  as 
of  any  wealth  and  trade  in  these  countries,  be- 
"  cause  they  have  by  the  direction  of  Providence  a 
"more  immediate  relation  to  them."  There  was  a 
very  strong  feeling  in  England  that  the  West  In- 
dian planters,  while  making  large  fortunes,  were 

147 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

very  neglectful  of  any  sense  of  Christian  duty  to- 
wards those  whom  they  employed.  "Too  many 
"complaints,"  says  Dr.  White  Kennett,  subse- 
quently Bishop  of  Peterborough,  preaching  before 
the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  in 
which  he  was  keenly  interested,  "have  been  made, 
"that  some  of  our  Planters  have  formerly  ob- 
"structed  the  Conversion  of  their  Slaves,  from  a 
"  strange  Suspicion  that  they  would  be  then  of  less 
"value  to  them.  And  that  some  of  our  Traders 
"among  the  remoter  Indians,  have  artfully  in- 
"  cited  them  to  Wars  and  Battles,  that  after  a  Vic- 
"tory  on  either  side,  they  might  purchase  Slaves 
"in  greater  numbers  and  at  easier  Rates.  I  wish 
"these  Men  could  take  the  Sin  and  Scandals  upon 
"their  own  Heads,  and  not  cast  a  Reproach  upon 
"our  Religion  and  our  Nation.  An  infinite  Re- 
"proach  it  is  for  any  Christian  People  to  sacrifice 
"their  Religion  in  the  sight  of  the  Heathen,  for  a 
"little  worldly  Gain." 

The  most  notorious  case  of  this  neglect  arose 
in  connection  with  the  conduct  of  those  who 
interfered  to  prevent  their  slaves  from  receiv- 
ing baptism  owing  to  their  scruples  about  the 
legality  of  retaining  fellow  Christians  in  slavery. 
Edmund  Gibson,  Bishop  of  London,  took  an  ac- 
tive part  in  exposing  the  shallowness  of  this  ex- 
cuse. 

148 


RELIGION  AND  PUBLIC   SPIRIT 

Public  spirit  was  also  called  upon  to  perform 
the  duty  of  the  community  in  seeing  to  the  wel- 
fare of  those  persons  who  were  least  able  to  care 
for  themselves.  The  sermons  before  magistrates 
gave  frequent  opportunity  for  dwelling  on  this 
as  a  matter  of  public  importance  to  the  com- 
munity. Dean  Mills,  of  Exeter,  preaching  on 
behalf  of  the  Devon  Hospital  in  1748,  insists 
that  public  interest  is  closely  connected  with, 
and  in  some  measure  dependent  on,  the  lives 
and  health  of  the  industrious  poor.  "These 
*'Men  are  the  Sinews  of  our  Government  and 
"the  Sources  of  our  Wealth,  and  as  the  Riches 
"arising from  them  consist  in  their  Industry,  their 
"Health  is  at  least  of  equal  importance  to  the 
"Public  as  their  Life;  for  they  no  longer  live  to 
"Society  than  they  can  serve  it  by  their  Labour; 
"whenever  Sickness  ties  up  their  industrious 
"Hands  they  are  worse  than  dead  to  the  commu- 
"nity,  for  the  Balance  is  then  turned  on  the  con- 
"trary  side,  and  instead  of  being  an  addition  to 
"our  wealth  they  become  a  heavy  burden  to  the 
"  public." 

Matters  which  were  of  such  importance  in  the 
interests  of  the  community  were  primarily  to  be 
considered  as  the  duty  of  magistrates,  but  they 
were  incumbent^  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  on 
all  the  members  of  the  community.  In  an  Assize 

149 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

Sermon  at  Maidstone  in  1750,  the  Reverend  Peter 
Pinnell  pointed  out  how  much  might  be  done  by 
the  magistrates  for  the  improvement  of  society. 

*  Without  their  vigilance  the  best  of  laws  are  like 

*  medicine  well  prepared  while  distempers  rage 
*for  want  of  application.  The  jurisdiction  of  the 
'gentlemen  is  so  extensive  that  the  very  seeds  of 

*  crimes,  whether  they  appear  in  idleness,  irregu- 
*larity  or  any  kind  of  offensive  behaviour,  may 
*be  choked  by  a  proper  exercise  of  their  authority, 
*and  flagrant  vices  happily  prevented  by  a  sea- 
*sonable  ad  version  upon  the  first  buddings  of  im- 

*  piety,  and  consequently  multitudes  who  might 
'otherwise  be  immersed  in  all  filthiness  of  flesh 
*and  spirit  may  become  diligent  in  their  respec- 
tive callings."    He  also  argues  that  such  duties 

are  incumbent  on  all  men  of  wealth  and  social 
position,  and  thus  leads  from  the  subject  of  offi- 
cial, to  personal  responsibility.  "It  has  been  fre- 
quently observed  by  writers  on  the  subject  of 
Morality  that  every  good  Man  is  a  Magistrate, 
—  a  Magistrate  constituted  by  Nature  though 
not  appointed  by  the  governing  Power.  ...  It 
is  incumbent  upon  every  Member  of  Society  to 
have  Regard  to  the  Ends  of  Public  Justice,  which 
are  the  Restraint  of  evil  Communications  and 
the  support  of  good  Manners,  yet  still  it  par- 
ticularly affects  those  whose  Fortunes  afford  the 

150 


RELIGION  AND   PUBLIC   SPIRIT 


cc 


<< 


fairest  Prospect  of  Success;  for  in  all  Matters 
"that  respect  our  Duty,  the  Measure  of  our  Obli- 
"gations  is  to  be  estimated  by  our  Ability;  Since 
"then  Wealth  and  Honour  are  the  circumstances 
"that  generally  give  us  a  superiority  over  other 
"men  whereby  we  may  easily  prepare  them  to 
"regard  our  Counsel  and  to  transcribe  our  Copy, 
"since  having  secular  ties  upon  them,  we  may, 
by  these  very  Cords  which  bind  their  temporal 
Concerns,  draw  them  to  a  consideration  of  their 
spiritual  interest." 
Dr.  Mapletof  t,  writing  on  the  Principles  and  Du" 
ties  of  the  Christian  Religion,^  insists  that  Christian 
duty  to  our  neighbour  includes  care  for  depend- 
ents; he  inveighs  against  a  negative  religion,  and 
urges  that  while  it  should  begin  at  our  families, 
it  should  extend  to  all  we  have  any  concern  with 
or  reap  advantage  from.  "Such  are  all  tenants 
"to  their  respective  Landlords;  all  poor  labour- 
"ers  and  handicraftsmen  to  those  that  respec- 
tively employ  them;  and  all  dependents  and  all 
inferiors  to  those  who  are  their  superiors,  or  who 
can  make  any  such  pretence  to  take  a  more  par- 
"ticular  care  of  them,  than  of  others  who  are  in  a 
more  distant  relation.  Thus  all  noble,  great  and 
wise  men,  and  all  men  in  general,  whose  lands 
and  revenues  are  improved  for  them  by  the  toil 

1  1712,  p.  412. 
151 


(( 


i( 
it 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

"and  sweat  of  the  poorer  sort,  and  all  great  trad- 
**ers  and  dealers,  who  live  easily  and  grow  rich  by 
"the  hard  labour  and  pains  which  others  take  for 
"them,  will  find  themselves  obliged  by  the  laws 
"of  Christian  equity  and  charity  ...  to  make 
"provision  first  for  the  souls,  and  then  too,  for  a 
"competent  subsistence  for  them  and  their  fami- 
"lies,  and  suitable  relief  of  the  necessities  of  all 
"those  by  whose  sore  travail,  and  usually  too 
"great  hardships,  they  live  in  so  much  plenty  and 
"esteem." 


Eighteenth  century  preachers  cannot  be 
charged  with  any  apathy  in  regard  to  the  duties  to 
the  community  or  the  value  of  public  spirit;  but 
the  first  efforts  to  improve  the  tone  of  society  itself 
as  well  as  by  moulding  public  opinion,  were  very 
disappointing.  At  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  when  so  much  was  done  by  Dr.  Thomas 
Bray  and  his  associates  for  fostering  the  Christian 
religion,  through  the  Society  for  the  Propagation 
of  the  Gospel  and  the  Society  for  Promoting 
Christian  Knowledge,  attempts  were  made  to 
carry  on  something  which  might  be  called  home 
mission  work  by  means  of  the  Society  for  the 
Reformation  of  Manners.  It  started  w4th  great 
promise,  but  its  career  of  usefulness  was  some- 
what short-lived.    The  reformation  of  evildoers 

152 


RELIGION  AND   PUBLIC   SPIRIT    . 

was  the  object  it  professed,  but  before  long  its 
main  activities  were  devoted  to  the  stamping  out 
of  vice  by  informing  against  prominent  offenders, 
and  bringing  them  before  the  civil  magistrates  for 
punishment.  The  remedial  influence  of  the  mem- 
bers was  seriously  affected,  and  they  shared  the 
discredit  which  attaches  to  common  informers.* 
The  story  is  a  further  warning,  if  any  were  needed, 
against  the  illusoriness  of  attempts  to  secure  real 
moral  progress  by  external  compulsion,  whether 
exercised  by  Church  or  State.  A  much  more  last- 
ing and  abiding  influence  for  good  in  society  was 
due  to  those  clergy  who  personally  undertook 
the  ofl5ce  of  Justices,  and  helped  to  raise  the 
standard  of  the  manner  in  which  magisterial 
duties  should  be  discharged. ^ 

There  was  more  success  in  the  efforts  to  remedy 
physical  evils,  and  in  particular,  to  make  provi- 
sion for  the  poor.  The  eighteenth  century  was 
marked  by  great  development  of  hospitals,  where 
the  poor  could  receive  medical  and  surgical  treat- 
ment. Provision  of  this  sort  had  been  made  in 
mediseval  Christendom  both  by  episcopal  authori- 
ties and  in  monasteries.  There  had  also  been  hos- 
pitals founded  by  private  benefit,  in  many  towns, 
but  these  mediaeval  institutions  were  for  the  most 

*  J.  Wickham  Legg,  op.  cH.,  302. 

*  Webb,  English  Local  Government,  Parish  and  County,  350. 

153 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

part  turned  to  other  purposes  at  the  Reformation, 

and  no  new  provision  seems  to  have  been  made. 

At  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  in  London, 

St.  Bartholomew's  and  St.  Thomas's  were  the 

only  hospitals  in  London,  and  in  the  country 

generally  there  were  no  hospitals  at  all.^   But  a 

change  was  marked  by  the  foundation  of  Guy's 

Hospital  in  1725;  and  the  reign  of  George  II  may 

be  regarded  as  a  great  era  of  the  foundation  of 

hospitals  in  county  towns.    There  were  many 

pulpit  appeals  on  behalf  of  these  institutions.   It 

was   felt  that  this  public  duty  could  be  best 

discharged,  not  by   official   administrators,  but 

through  voluntary  help;  an  opinion  which  is  still 

generally  maintained.    "The  claims  of  the  sick 

"poor,"   said   Dr.   Parkinson,  in  preaching  for 

Addenbrooke's  Hospital  in  1787,  "received  addi- 

"  tional  force  from  their  relation  to  the  rich  and  to 

"the  State.  Were  some  general  malady  to  invade 

"the  health  of  the  peasant,  manufacturer  and  me- 

"chanic,  honour  and  wealth  and  learning  would 

"become  insignificant,  as  the  necessary  wants  and 

"conveniences  of  life  would  be  ill-supplied,  and 

"the  State  would  sink  into  poverty  and  weak- 

"ness.  .  .  .  The  health  of  a  poor  man,  often  in- 

"  jured  in  the  service  of  the  public,  ought  to  have 

1  In  twenty -three  counties  of  England  there  were  no  hospitals  in 
1710. 

154 


RELIGION  AND   PUBLIC   SPIRIT 


been  protected  with  more  vigilance,  because 
more  valuable  than  property.  It  is  the  whole  of 
a  poor  man's  possessions,  and  much  dearer  than 
riches  to  others ;  since  by  losing  it  he  is  not  only 
deprived  of  subsistence,  which  is  equivalent  to 
the  greatest  treasures,  but  sustains  perhaps 
great  bodily  pain,  for  which  nothing  can  be  an 
**  equivalent.  .  .  .  Presuming  that  the  permanent 
establishment  of  hospitals  for  the  sick  is  the 
best  remedy,  it  might  be  concluded  that  govern- 
ment should  have  made  such  provision.  But  the 
conduct  of  the  government  in  only  taking  the 
infirmaries  under  its  protection,  which  are  for 
those  disabled  in  the  service  of  the  State,  may 
be  justified  on  these  grounds,  —  such  asylums 
would  have  to  be  supported  by  additional  taxes 
on  the  rich,  and  being  obviously  more  expensive 
**  would  have  required  greater  exactions  than 
"their  voluntary  contributions.  All  services  in 
"them  would  be  performed  for  wages,  and  there  is 
something  unnatural  and  shocking  to  a  man  of 
feeling  to  show  compassion  only  for  gain,  or  from 
compulsion.  But  what  will  have  most  weight 
with  humane  persons  is  that  they  would  have  to 
comply  with  compulsory  statutes,  instead  of 
being  able  to  gratify  their  feeling  for  the  unhap- 
piness  of  a  brother  by  relieving  his  distress." 
Bishop  Butler,  in  preaching  on  this  topic,  pointed 

155 


(< 

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CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

out  the  obligations  of  the  middle  class  as  well  as 
of  wealthy  traders  to  show  this  public  spirit,  — 
"The  improvement  of  trade  and  commerce  has 
"made  another  change  .  .  .  and  I  think  a  very 
"happy  one,  in  the  state  of  the  world,  as  it  has 
"enlarged  the  middle  rank  of  people;  many  of 
"  which  are  in  good  measure  free  from  the  vices 
"of  the  highest  and  the  lowest  part  of  mankind. 
"Now  these  persons  must  remember  that  whether 
"in  common  language  they  do,  or  do  not,  pass 
"under  the  denomination  of  rich,  yet  they  really 
"are  so,  with  regard  to  the  indigent  and  necessi- 
"tous;  and  that  considering  the  great  numbers 
"which  make  up  this  middle  rank  among  us,  and 
"how  much  they  mix  with  the  poor,  they  are  able 
"to  contribute  very  largely  to  their  relief,  and 
"have  in  all  respects  a  very  great  influence  over 
"them.  It  is  not  only  true  that  the  rich  have  the 
"power  of  doing  a  great  deal  of  good  and  must  be 
"held  highly  blamable  for  neglecting  to  do  it;  but 
"it  is  moreover  true  that  this  power  is  given  them 
"by  way  of  Trust,  in  order  to  their  keeping  down 
"that  Vice  and  Misery,  with  which  the  lower 
"people  would  otherwise  be  quite  over-run." 

Still  greater  evidence  of  the  new  care  for  the 
physical  conditions  of  individual  life  was  shown 
in  1774  by  the  foundation  of  the  Royal  Humane 
Society.    A  small  society  had  been  founded  in 

156 


RELIGION  AND    PUBLIC   SPIRIT 

Amsterdam  in  1767,  and  William  Hawes,  a  pub- 
lic-spirited physician,  who  practised  in  the  Strand, 
was  strongly  convinced  of  the  possibility  of  resus- 
citating some  of  those  who  were  apparently 
drowned;  he  gave  from  his  own  pocket  rewards 
to  all  who  brought  the  bodies  of  the  apparently 
drowned  to  his  surgery,  and  he  was  so  suc- 
cessful that  a  circle  of  friends  desired  to  relieve 
him  of  the  financial  responsibilities  and  to  carry 
on  the  work  on  a  larger  scale.  This  was  the  first 
of  the  great  philanthropic  movements  where  care 
for  individuals  was  put  in  the  forefront,  and  the 
benefit  and  interest  of  society  was  relatively  out 
of  sight.  Just  as  John  Wesley's  preaching,  and  the 
class  system  which  grew  out  of  it,  was  primarily 
devised  for  the  fostering  of  personal  religious  life, 
so  some  of  the  philanthropic  movements  of  the 
eighteenth  century  took  the  form  of  pitying  per- 
sonal suffering  and  seeking  to  relieve  it,  where  the 
interests  of  the  State  were  only  remotely  con- 
cerned. 

The  other  philanthropic  movements  of  the 
later  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  had  the  same 
character.  Attention  was  directed  by  Howard  to 
the  miserable  conditions  of  the  prisons,  and  much 
was  done  under  his  initiative  to  improve  the  state 
of  affairs,  and  to  do  away  with  jail  fever.  In 
much  the  same  way  we  may  note  sympathy  with 

157 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

child  suffering,  and  a  desire  to  remedy  it.  The 
cruelties  which  were  inflicted  on  the  boys  who 
assisted  in  chimney  sweeping,  when  first  pointed 
out,  came  as  a  shock  to  the  pubHc  conscience,  and 
endeavours  were  made  by  statute  to  prevent  the 
continuance  of  the  evil.  Sir  Robert  Peel  felt  the 
defectiveness  of  the  arrangements  for  children, 
who  were  apprenticed  in  his  spinning  mills,  and 
brought  in  a  measure  which  might  introduce 
better  conditions,  both  for  health  and  for  educa- 
tion. The  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  saw  the 
formation  of  a  Society  for  Bettering  the  Condi- 
tions of  the  Poor,  and  the  members  seem  to  have 
felt  their  way  to  the  conclusion  that  the  truest 
benefit  they  could  confer  on  the  rising  generation 
was  to  provide  more  general  facilities  to  fit  them 
for  their  place  in  society.  The  British  School  So- 
ciety and  the  National  Society  are  monuments  of 
this  new  care  for  education  as  a  means  of  making 
the  most  of  each  individual  life. 

This  feeling  of  pity  for  individuals  was  not  con- 
fined to  those  who  were  of  our  own  blood,  and  our 
own  country.  It  entered  very  largely  into  ques- 
tions which  arose  in  connection  with  the  foreign 
possessions  and  foreign  trade  of  the  country. 
Burke's  eloquence  awakened  a  new  sense  of  our 
responsibilities  for   the   subject  populations  of 

158 


RELIGION   AND   PUBLIC   SPIRIT 

India.  The  imagination  was  struck  by  the  pic- 
tures which  were  presented  of  the  cruelty  of  slave 
raids  and  the  misery  of  the  Atlantic  passage,  and 
the  Movement  for  the  Abolition  of  the  Slave 
Trade  was  carried  through  with  success,  while 
there  was  also  a  new  development  of  missionary 
enterprise.  The  aim  of  the  founders  of  the  Soci- 
ety for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  had  been 
to  extend  the  Christian  polity  in  the  world,  but 
the  founders  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society 
and  Baptist  Missionary  Society  were  convinced 
that  the  dark  places  of  the  earth  were  the  habita- 
tions of  cruelty,  and  were  inspired  by  a  sense  of 
pity  for  those  who  were  personal  sufferers.  From 
the  beginning  of  the  century  to  the  close  there 
are  signs  of  public  spirit,  and  active  beneficence, 
which  was  initiated  by  individuals,  or  bodies  of 
individuals,  who  thus  made  up  for  the  neglects  of 
the  State. 

III.    THE    PROSPERITY   OF   THE   COMMUNITY 

When  we  consider  the  keen  efforts  which  were 
made  throughout  the  eighteenth  century  to  stir 
up  public  spirit,  and  to  rouse  the  sense  of  pity, 
and  when  we  note  the  response  which  was  made 
to  these  appeals,  it  seems  extraordinary  that  so 
many  twentieth-century  writers  should  speak  of 
the  eighteenth  century  as  if  apathy  and  neglect 

159 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

were  its  chief  characteristics.  There  is,  however, 
some  Httle  excuse  for  this  exaggeration  when  we 
consider  material  progress  within  the  realm.  In 
the  view  which  was  commonly  taken  of  the  pio- 
neers in  the  agricultural  and  industrial  revolu- 
tions, the  adoption  of  improved  husbandry  in- 
stead of  old  methods  of  tillage  was  a  benefit  to  the 
State;  it  added  to  the  food  supply  and  gave  an 
opportunity  for  the  growth  of  national  wealth  and 
national  power.  Looked  at  from  the  national 
standpoint  it  was  a  gain;  and  the  incidental  suffer- 
ing which  occurred  in  the  march  of  progress  did 
not  receive  the  attention  it  deserved.  Arthur 
Young  was  full  of  admiration  of  the  improving 
landlords,  who  incurred  great  expenses  to  do  away 
with  the  obstacles  to  better  husbandry  which 
were  imposed  by  the  system  of  common  cultiva- 
tion in  common  fields.  It  was  only  towards  the 
close  of  his  life  that  he  came  to  realise  that  the 
revolution,  which  he  had  described  with  such  en- 
thusiasm, had  tended  to  depress  the  rural  labourer 
and  leave  him  in  a  condition  of  hopeless  poverty. 
He  commended  the  change  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  material  resources  of  the  community,  while 
the  other  side  was  not  obvious. 

In  a  similar  way  it  was  felt  that  the  men 
who  had  enterprise  enough  to  open  up  new 
coalfields  in  Scotland  by  sinking  their  capital 

160 


RELIGION  AND  PUBLIC  SPIRIT 

in  mines,  and  providing  the  necessary  equip- 
ment for  carrying  on  the  industry,  were  con- 
tributing to  the  material  prosperity  of  the  na- 
tion.  They  were  regarded  as  pubKc  benefactors, 
and  regarded  themselves  in  that  light;  many  of 
them  felt  no  responsibility  for  the  moral  and  re- 
ligious welfare  of  the  new  population  that  had 
sprung  up  in  connection  with  their  enterprise. 
The  parochial  system,  at  any  rate  in  Scotland, 
was  unable  to  cope  with  the  difficulties  which 
arose  in  the  congested  districts,  and  there  seems 
to  have  been  an  appalling  neglect  of  the  most 
elementary  requirements  of  civilised  life  among 
the  mining  population.    The  assistant  commis- 
sioner, who  reported  on  the  condition  of  Scottish 
mines,  felt  that  he  was  making  a  new  demand  on 
the  obligations  of  the  mining  companies  and  the 
land-owners,  and  feared  that  it  might  be  neces- 
sary for  the  State  to  bring  compulsion  to  bear 
upon  them  in  regard  to  the  condition  of  their  de- 
pendents. "Let  it  not  be  imagined  for  a  moment," 
he  said,  "that  gentlemen  who  have  shown  such 
"enterprise  and  skill  as  is  displayed  at  [Gart- 
"  sherry]  have  not  deserved  well  of  their  country, 
—  all  I  strongly  insist  upon  is  that  their  own 
interest,  as  well  as  those  of  the  country,  require 
that  a  quota  of  this  wealth  shall  be  deemed  due, 
from  the  very  first  creation  of  a  public  work,  to 

161 


(S 

« 


2 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

**be  set  apart  for  the  religious  and  secular  educa- 
"tion  of  the  population  employed."  ^  He  regarded 
voluntary  effort  as  inadequate  and  held  that 
"Parliament  must  .  .  .  provide  for  every  member 
"of  the  State  his  birthright  by  the  laws  of  Eng- 
"land,  instruction  in  the  duties,  the  warnings, 
"the  promises  and  the  consolations  of  Chris- 
"tianity;  such  instruction  can  be  adequately  and 
"regularly  supplied  only  by  making  the  cost  of  it 
"a  necessary  incident  to  all  increase  of  property 
"which  involves  an  increase  of  population." 
The  capitalists  were  so  clear  that  they  were  ful- 
filling their  duty  in  promoting  the  wealth  of  the 
community  that  they  felt  no  responsibility  about 
their  dependents.  At  the  beginning  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  there  had  been  a  contrast  between 
the  tradition  of  the  landed  interest  in  recognising 
public  responsibilities,  and  the  attitude  of  the 
moneyed  interest  in  failing  to  acknowledge  them. 
But  as  the  century  advanced  and  capital  was 
invested  in  the  improvement  of  agriculture  and 
the  development  of  mines,  the  capitalists'  point 
of  view  was  retained;  they  were  satisfied  with 
themselves  for  promoting  the  material  progress 
of  society  as  a  whole,  at  the  very  time  when  a 
sense  of  pity  for  individuals  and  duty  towards 

1  Parliamentary  Papers,  Reports,  1842,  xvi,  355. 

2  Ibid.,  349. 

162 


RELIGION   AND   PUBLIC   SPIRIT 

individuals  was  being  more  generally  aroused.  It 
is  not  true  that  the  country  was  apathetic,  but  it 
is  true  that  those  who  were  devoting  their  wealth 
to  promoting  the  material  progress  of  the  coun- 
try were  blinded  by  self-satisfaction,  and  failed  to 
recognise  the  obligations  they  were  incurring  in 
regard  to  human  lives. 

When  we  once  realise  that  the  indifference  to 
the  sufferings  of  the  working  classes,  which  char- 
acterised the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
was  not  due  to  moral  obliquity  but  to  intellectual 
error,  it  becomes  a  warning  for  all  time.  It  helps 
us  to  see  how  mischievous  an  intellectual  error 
may  become,  and  what  danger  may  arise  from 
mere  confusion  of  thought.  The  men  of  that  time 
identified  the  prosperity  of  the  community  with 
the  prosperity  of  the  individuals  who  composed 
it.  English  industry  and  commerce  had  grown 
extraordinarily  in  spite  of  the  war,  and  it  was 
not  unnatural  to  assume  that  individuals  must 
necessarily  be  prospering  too.  This  assumption 
seemed  to  be  a  mere  truism,  so  that  the  men  of  the 
time  felt  no  call  to  look  behind  it,  and  rendered 
themselves  incapable  of  attending  to  or  interpret- 
ing the  misery  that  was  going  on  under  their  eyes. 
They  regarded  this  as  a  transient  phenomenon 
which  would  soon  be  outlived,  and  might  there- 

163 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

fore  be  neglected.  It  was  not  till  after  thirty  or 
forty  years  of  miserable  suffering  that  the  public 
conscience  was  roused  to  the  fact  that  the  in- 
dustrial and  commercial  prosperity  of  the  com- 
munity was  being  purchased  at  the  expense  of 
the  physical  injury  and  moral  degradation  of  men, 
women  and  children,  and  that  the  material  pros- 
perity might  be  purchased  too  dear.  So  far  from 
its  being  true  to  identify  the  prosperity  of  the 
community  and  the  prosperity  of  individuals  it 
is  safer  to  generalise  from  the  experience  of  the 
early  nineteenth  century,  and  to  say  that  the 
material  progress  of  society,  especially  when  it 
is  rapid,  involves  a  certain  amount  of  individual 
suffering. 

This  seems  to  be  a  pessimist  doctrine,  and  there 
is  a  temptation  at  the  present  day  to  fall  into  the 
old  error,  though  from  the  opposite  side.  It 
is  plausible  to  maintain  that  whatever  is  for 
the  material  good  of  the  individuals  who  form  the 
community,  is  also  for  the  good  of  the  community 
as  a  whole.  But  though  it  appears  that  national 
wealth  consists  of  the  sum  of  individual  wealth, 
we  are  mistaken  if  we  think  of  national  life 
as  consisting  only  of  the  aggregate  of  individual 
lives  of  the  men  and  women  of  the  country  at  the 
present  time.  We  cannot  identify  the  two  and 
argue  from  one  to  the  other,  without  falling  into 

164 


RELIGION  AND   PUBLIC   SPIRIT 

serious  error,  both  in  the  interpretation  of  his- 
tory and  in  the  practical  proposals  we  advocate. 
It  is  easy  to  show  that  individual  suffering  has 
again  and  again  been  incidental  to  the  progress  of 
society,  and  we  may,  if  we  choose,  fix  our  eyes  so 
earnestly  on  the  individual  suffering  as  to  ignore 
the  national  progress.^  On  the  other  hand,  it  is 
well  to  remember  that  what  makes  for  the  com- 
fort of  the  masses  in  the  present  generation  does 
not  necessarily  result  in  the  material  welfare  of 
posterity  in  the  long  run.  There  are  two  points  of 
view  which  must  always  be  distinguished  in  our 
minds:  the  good  of  society  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  welfare  of  the  individuals  who  compose  so- 
ciety on  the  other.  While  this  distinction  needs 
to  be  drawn  even  from  an  economic  point  of  view, 
it  is  still  more  important  to  keep  it  in  mind  when 
we  try  to  take  account  of  culture  and  character 
and  other  elements  in  human  welfare.  Nor  have 
we,  in  a  progressive  society,  any  fixed  or  definite 
standard  by  which  we  can  judge  of  improvement, 
either  in  society  as  a  whole  or  in  individuals.  We 
have  not  attained  a  goal  from  which  to  judge 
aright  of  each  step  in  advance;  we  are  only  looking 
on  at  a  process.  We  may,  however,  see  that  the 
national  life  and  individual  lives  are  closely  inter- 
connected and  act  and  react  on  each  other.   The 

^  Hammond,  The  Village  Labourer,  p.  26. 
165 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

advance  of  society  opens  up  more  possibilities  for 
individuals;  and  the  individuals,  who  make  the 
most  of  the  opportunities  that  are  open  to  them, 
are  helping  to  secure  each  position  that  is  gained, 
and  are  pioneers  in  social  progress. 


VI 

HUMANITARIANISM  AND  COERCION 
I.   THE  ABANDONMENT  OF  LAISSEZ-FAIRE 

It  had  been  generally  held  during  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  in  the  seventeenth  century,  that  the 
man  who  thought  only  of  his  private  interest  was 
a  positive  danger  to  the  community;  but  during 
the  eighteenth  century  a  remarkable  change  may 
be  observed,  at  all  events  so  far  as  material  pros- 
perity is  concerned.  At  the  beginning  of  the  cen- 
tury according  to  current  opinion  the  force  of  self- 
interest  was  one  that  might  be  guided  and  con- 
trolled so  as  to  work  for  the  common  good,  and 
Parliament  busied  itself  in  the  effort  to  bring 
private  interests  into  harmony  with  that  of  the 
public.  But  as  time  passed,  it  came  to  be  more 
and  more  recognised  that  State  interference  was 
not  really  as  necessary  as  had  been  supposed  for 
the  promotion  of  public  interests,  and  an  era 
began  when  it  was  held  that  government  would 
do  most  for  the  material  prosperity  of  the  country 
by  leaving  private  interests  alone.  Adam  Smith 
had  reached  this  conclusion  as  a  matter  of  practi- 
cal experience,  and  from  an  examination  of  the 

167 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

expedients  by  which  statesmen  had  endeavoured 
to  build  up  the  material  prosperity  of  Great 
Britain,  while  French  economists  expounded  a 
similar  doctrine  as  a  philosophical  principle.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  educated 
opinion  in  Great  Britain  accepted  the  principle  of 
laissez-faire  with  confidence;  men  were  inclined  to 
believe  that  the  way  in  which  Parliament  could 
do  most  for  social  reform  was  by  abolishing  the 
restrictions  which  had  been  imposed  in  less  en- 
lightened times.  It  was  in  this  spirit  that  the 
Elizabethan  arrangements  for  industrial  training 
by  means  of  apprenticeship  and  for  regulating  the 
rates  of  wages  were  swept  away  as  anachronisms 
and  absurdities.  The  present  generation,  after  a 
century  of  laissez-faire,  takes  a  different  view  of 
some  of  the  institutions  that  were  then  abolished 
and  does  not  regard  them  as  either  unnecessary 
or  prejudicial. 

In  the  second  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury there  were,  however,  signs  of  a  reaction,  and 
it  came  to  be  generally  recognised  that  State  in- 
terference might  be  desirable  in  exceptional  cases. 
Two  causes  contributed  to  this  result,  and  so 
weakened  the  hold  which  laissez-faire  had  es- 
tablished on  the  public  mind.  First,  philanthro- 
pists were  conscious  that  their  efforts  to  relieve  dis- 
tress were  spasmodic  and  irregular;  they  felt  that 

168 


HUMANITARIANISM   AND   COERCION 

the  evils  against  which  they  were  endeavouring 
to  contend  could  not  be  effectively  dealt  with  un- 
less the  State  came  to  their  aid;  this  was  especially 
recognised  with  regard  to  the  protection  of  chil- 
dren from  injury.  There  might  be  a  careful  and 
considerate  master  with  careful  and  considerate 
foremen,  here  and  there;  but  philanthropic  senti- 
ment could  not  secure  a  change  of  system  unless 
it  were  supported  by  the  strong  arm  of  the  law. 
Again,  the  reforms  which  have  taken  place  in 
the  Civil  Service  itself  have  given  the  public  con- 
fidence in  official  administration,  to  which  it 
had  no  claim  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century. 

The  agitation  which  led  to  the  appointment  of 
a  Select  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons 
in  1830,  and  of  a  Royal  Commission  in  1833,  re- 
vealed a  state  of  affairs  in  the  factory  districts 
which  convinced  the  public  that  State  interfer- 
ence with  some  of  the  largest  industries  of  the 
country  was  necessary;  hitherto  the  public  had 
taken  for  granted  that  individual  suffering  was 
merely  transitional,  but  it  now  became  plain  that 
individual  suffering,  when  cumulative  and  per- 
sistent, did  serious  mischief  to  the  community. 
The  public  conscience  was  awakened  by  Mr. 
Michael  Sadler  and  Lord  Shaftesbury  in  regard 

169 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

to  the  question  of  the  employment  of  women  and 
children,  and  this  was  taken  up  thoroughly.  This 
was  the  first  important  step,  but  it  led  to  many 
others;  and  a  great  advance  was  made  in  1842, 
as  the  result  of  enquiries  in  regard  to  the  em- 
ployment of  children  in  mines  and  in  other 
dangerous  occupations.  The  establishment  of 
Factory  Inspectors  has  done  much  to  improve 
the  conditions  of  work,  by  systematically  calling 
attention  to  evils  that  can  be  remedied  by  State 
regulation,  and  to  the  improved  forms  of  regu- 
lation which  may  be  introduced.  It  is  unneces- 
sary, however,  to  follow  out  the  story  of  this  leg- 
islation; for  our  purpose  it  is  sufficient  to  point 
out  that  the  public  conscience,  when  roused,  suc- 
ceeded in  restricting  the  mischiefs  which  arose 
in  connection  with  the  industrial  employment 
of  capital. 

Since  the  time  of  the  Stuarts,  all  attempts 
to  regulate  by  public  authority  the  manner,  in 
which  capital  was  invested  in  industry,  had  broken 
down.  The  Church  had  failed  to  secure  a  re- 
sponse from  the  conscience  of  the  upright  man,  in 
regard  to  the  moral  distinctions  which  were  drawn; 
and  the  attempts  of  James  I  and  Charles  I  to 
direct  private  capital  into  the  channels  in  which 
it  should  best  subserve  public  purpose,  had  been 
abandoned.   Both  civil  and  ecclesiastical  author- 

170 


HUMANITARIANISM  AND   COERCION 

ity  had  been  worsted  in  the  seventeenth  century 
in  their  attempts  to  control  the  great  instrument 
of  material  progress;  but  the  industrial  revolu- 
tion and  the  misery  it  entailed,  despite  the  si- 
multaneous increase  of  national  wealth,  forced  the 
conviction  on  the  public  mind  that  capital  could 
not  be  trusted  with  irresponsible  power,  but  must 
be  checked  where  patent  evils  had  arisen.  At  that 
date,  however,  State  interference  was  still  re- 
garded as  an  exceptional  thing  ;  and  the  onus 
probandi,  in  any  further  interference  with  laissez- 
faire,  continued  to  lie  with  those  who  advocated 
restriction. 

Since  it  was  admitted  that  State  interference 
might  be  occasionally  necessary  in  the  interests 
of  the  community,  there  has  been  a  constant 
tendency  to  urge  that  a  case  has  been  made 
out  for  legislative  regulation  and  official  superin- 
tendence in  some  new  direction.  A  very  great  ex- 
tension of  the  principle  occurred  after  1831,  when 
the  outbreak  of  cholera  caused  a  public  scare,  and 
drew  attention  to  the  conditions  in  which  masses 
of  the  population  lived.  The  most  serious  rav- 
ages of  this  disease,  and  of  typhoid  fever,  had 
been  in  the  Black  Country  and  in  the  manufac- 
turing districts  round  Manchester  and  Glasgow. 
A  Royal  Commission  was  appointed  to  enquire 

171 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

into  the  preventable  causes  of  disease,  to  con- 
sider how  far  improved  drainage  and  sufficient 
water  supply  would  contribute  to  a  diminution 
of  mortality,  and  what  precautions  should  be 
taken  in  the  case  of  noxious  manufactures.  Ad- 
ministrative machinery  for  dealing  with  public 
health  was  started  in  1848,  and  progress  was  stim- 
ulated by  the  later  outbreaks  of  cholera  in  1849 
and  1854.  The  measures  that  were  first  taken 
tentatively,  were  only  the  beginning  of  an  ex- 
traordinary development  of  governmental  activ- 
ity, which  concerns  itself  not  so  much  with  the 
conditions  of  work  as  with  the  conditions  under 
which  people  live.  The  growth  of  scientific  knowl- 
edge has  not  only  given  us  the  means  of  curing 
what  is  injurious,  but  has  rendered  preventive 
measures  possible.  Progress  has  been  made  in 
many  directions,  especially  as  regards  drainage 
and  water  supply,  but  the  problem  of  housing 
both  in  urban  and  rural  districts  presents  many 
problems  that  are  still  unsolved. 

Such  regulation  in  the  interest  of  public  health 
had  only  a  very  indirect  bearing  on  the  question 
of  laissez-faire  and  the  freedom  of  the  capitalist 
to  conduct  his  business  in  his  own  way,  but  there 
was  a  great  deal  of  change  of  public  opinion  on 
this  point.  In  the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth 
century  it  was  generally  held  that  trade  unions 

172   ■ 


HUMANITARIANISM  AND   COERCION 

were  mischievous  because  they  interfered  with 
the  freedom  of  the  capitaHst  to  carry  on  his  busi- 
ness in  the  fashion  in  which  he  could  make  it  a 
success.  The  limitations  of  hours,  which  had  been 
urged  by  philanthropists  for  the  benefit  of  women 
and  children,  operated  so  as  to  define  the  condi- 
tions of  labour  of  every  kind;  and  during  the 
latter  half  of  last  century  trade  unionists  have 
been  able  to  secure  the  assistance  of  the  legisla- 
ture to  carry  out  their  policy.  The  right  of  col- 
lective bargaining  has  been  recognised,  and  trade 
unions  have  been  placed  in  a  privileged  position 
by  the  Trade  Disputes  Act,  so  that  employers 
have  difficulty  in  obtaining  redress  for  injuries  in- 
flicted upon  their  business  by  their  men.  There 
has  been  at  the  same  time  a  tendency  to  adopt, 
and  to  enforce,  the  principle  of  a  minimum  wage, 
which  shows  that  the  doctrine  of  laissez-faire  in 
regard  to  the  employment  of  capital  and  industry 
has  been  absolutely  abandoned. 

Laissez-faire  had  been  first  advocated  by  Adam 
Smith  and  his  disciples  with  reference  to  the  for- 
eign trade,  and  they  had  a  long  continued  struggle 
in  order  to  secure  its  acceptance  in  this  depart- 
ment of  national  economic  life;  but  they  may  be 
said  to  have  succeeded  in  1846  when  the  Corn 
Laws  were  repealed  by  Sir  Robert  Peel.  Even  in 

173 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

this  connection,  however,  there  have  been  signs 
of  a  reaction.  The  Fair  Trade  Movement  of  1880 
was  the  precursor  of  the  more  vigorous  agitation 
for  fiscal  reform,  which  was  started  by  the  late 
Mr.  Chamberlain  in  1903;  and  an  immense 
amount  is  now  done  by  the  Commercial  Depart- 
ment of  the  Board  of  Trade  and  in  other  ways  for 
promoting  commercial  prosperity.^  Hence  we  are 
justified  in  saying  that  the  policy  of  laissez-faire 
is  no  longer  assumed  as  axiomatic,  but  has  been 
completely  discredited.  It  is  very  seriously  called 
in  question  in  those  departments  where  it  has  not 
been  already  abandoned. 

II.    COERCION    AND   THE   DUTIES    OF  OTHER 

PEOPLE 

As  public  opinion  was  gradually  awakened  to 
the  evils  which  had  arisen  under  a  system  of 
laissez-faire,  there  was  a  new  readiness  to  rely  on 
the  State  and  to  recognise  that  certain  conditions 
of  life  and  employment  were  important  to  the 
community.  It  was  felt  that  the  State  had  a  duty 
in  regard  to  the  overworking  of  women  and  chil- 
dren, and  to  the  conditions  of  work  and  employ- 
ment. Philanthropists  were  especially  eager  that 
the  government  should  interfere  and  pass  hu- 
manitarian legislation,  and  coercion  by  the  State 

*  Ashley,  Preface  to  British  Dominions. 

174 


HUMANITARIANISM   AND   COERCION 

seemed  to  be  the  simplest  way  of  forcing  other 
people  to  do  their  duty.  What  the  better  man 
would  do  voluntarily,  and  what  was  in  the  inter- 
ests of  the  State  in  the  long  run,  could  not  be 
adopted  generally,  so  long  as  the  shortsighted  self- 
interest  of  a  few  individuals  was  allowed  to  stand 
in  its  way.  And  hence  philanthropists  and  hu- 
manitarians had  a  strong  conviction  in  favour  of 
coercion  by  the  State;  but  while  we  recognise  its 
merits,  there  is  a  danger  of  exaggerating  the  influ- 
ence which  it  may  exercise  and  of  forgetting  to 
take  account  of  the  conditions  which  are  neces- 
sary for  its  success.  It  cannot  be  effectively 
brought  to  bear  unless  it  is  supported  by  public 
opinion,  and  even  at  its  best  there  may  be  inci- 
dental disadvantages  in  relying  on  governmental 
machinery.  Public  opinion  is  more  easily  roused 
to  demand  governmental  action  in  regard  to  any 
mischief  than  to  the  desirability  of  introducing 
positive  improvements.  The  work  of  the  fac- 
tory commissioners,  and  of  those  who  are  em- 
ployed in  tracing  evils  which  affect  public  health, 
and  in  insisting  on  such  matters  as  the  notification 
of  disease,  have  been  of  the  highest  importance. 

On  the  other  hand,  serious  complications  may 
arise  when  an  attempt  is  made  to  confer  bene- 
fits on  the  public  at  the  expense  of  the  rate- 

175 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

payers  or  citizens.  No  improvement  in  ma- 
terial conditions  will  benefit  all  citizens  alike; 
some  sections  or  classes  are  likely  to  gain  more 
obviously  than  others,  and  a  proposal  that 
fails  to  appeal  to  the  sense  of  justice  will  not 
be  taken  up  with  any  enthusiasm.  A  public 
park  may  be  of  great  advantage  to  a  civic  com- 
munity, but  wherever  it  is  placed  it  may  be  of 
constant  advantage  to  some  of  those  who  pay  for 
it,  while  others  who  reside  at  a  distance  will  have 
little  opportunity  of  enjoying  it,  and  in  this  there 
is  an  element  of  unfairness ;  similarly  it  is  possible 
that  a  boon  may  be  conferred  on  men  who  cannot 
afford  to  take  advantage  of  it;  public  holidays 
may  be  much  enjoyed  by  those  who  are  in  com- 
fortable circumstances,  but  the  casual  labourer 
cannot  afford  the  luxury  of  being  idle,  and  may 
feel  it  a  hardship  to  have  leisure  imposed  upon 
him  against  his  will. 

In  other  cases  where  the  State  by  a  system  of 
Insurance  insists  upon  compulsory  thrift,  there 
may  be  a  legitimate  grievance  at  having  to  pro- 
vide for  the  future  in  the  form,  and  on  the  terms, 
which  the  State  lays  down.  Any  pretension  on 
the  part  of  authority  to  coerce  men  for  their  own 
good  is  likely  to  be  more  or  less  resented  among 
people  in  whom  the  sense  of  personal  liberty  is 
strongly  developed. 

176 


HUMANITARIANISM  AND   COERCION 

Coercion  by  the  State  is  a  powerful  instrument 
for  dealing  with  masses  of  men,  but  it  cannot  be 
rightly  adjusted  to  suit  the  circumstances  of  par- 
ticular lives,  and  even  as  to  the  effects  which  will 
be  produced  upon  society  there  may  be  much  un- 
certainty.  Those  who  are  responsible  for  action 
by  the  State  must  give  their  minds  to  forecast 
probable  results,  and  to  deciding   as  to  what 
it  is  wise  to  do  under  the  circumstances.    But 
no  human  legislator  or  body  of  legislators  is  om- 
niscient.  However  well  intentioned  they  may  be, 
they  are  never  perfectly  informed,  and  social  legis- 
lation is  particularly  liable  to  have  incidental  re- 
sults that  were  quite  unexpected;  even  in  the  case 
of  transplanting  some  expedient  from  a  place 
where  it  has  worked  well  to  another  district,  there 
is  no  certainty  that  it  will  be  beneficial.  The  plot 
of  garden  ground  that  is  ample  in  some  condi- 
tions of  soil,  would  be  practically  useless  in  another 
village.  Experience  which  shows  that  a  scheme  is 
working  well,  as  a  means  of  facing  a  temporary 
difficulty,  throws  no  light  on  the  accumulative 
effects  it  may  have  in  the  long  run,  if  it  comes  to 
be  regarded  as  a  permanent  institution.  The  fact 
that  the  system  of  granting  allowances  in  addi- 
tion to  wages  staved  off  temporary  distress  in 
many  quarters,  will  not  lead  us  to  commend  the 
wisdom  of  a  policy  which  resulted  in  such  wide- 

177 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

spread  pauperisation.  No  hard-and-fast  line  can 
be  drawn  between  the  preventing  of  evil  and  the 
promoting  of  good,  and  no  clear  line  can  be  laid 
down  as  to  matters  in  regard  to  which  the  State 
ought  or  ought  not  to  interfere;  but  it  is  clear  that 
coercive  authority  is  at  its  best,  when  it  is  aiming 
at  eradicating  some  obvious  physical  evil,  and 
that  it  is  likely  to  cause  much  greater  friction  and 
to  be  much  less  certainly  beneficial  when  it  aims 
at  conferring  a  general  benefit,  and  a  public  boon. 

III.    RELIANCE   ON   STATE   INTERFERENCE 

A  farther  remarkable  change  in  the  attitude  of 
the  public  mind  towards  State  interference  took 
place  at  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Up 
till  1880  ^  there  was  a  general  impression  that 
State  interference  might  sometimes  be  a  neces- 
sary evil,  but  that  it  was  so  inconsistent  with  pop- 
ular liberty  that  resort  should  not  be  had  to  it 
until  all  other  methods  of  remedy  had  been  tried. 
There  was  besides,  in  many  circles,  a  feeling  that 
government  work  was  badly  done;  that  officials 
were  apt  to  be  the  slaves  of  routine,  and  that 
work  was  carried  on  more  efficiently  by  private 
persons  than  by  the  State;  State  superintend- 
ence and  inspection  might  be  approved,  but  State 

*  See  my  article  on  "Progress  of  Socialism  in  England,"  Comr- 
temporary  Review,  January,  1879. 

178 


HUMANITARIANISM  AND  COERCION 

interference  continued  to  be  looked  upon  with 
suspicion. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  century,  however, 
a  great  impression  was  created  by  the  success 
which  had  attended  the  remedial  legislation  in 
regard  to  the  conditions  of  work  in  factories  and 
mines,  and  the  conditions  of  life  of  the  working 
classes.  The  coercive  power  of  the  State  was 
seen  to  be  exceedingly  effective  in  putting  down 
mischiefs  that  had  grown  and  flourished  until  it 
was  brought  to  bear;  an  impression  became  widely 
diffused  that,  since  this  beneficent  force  was  avail- 
able, it  was  a  mere  waste  of  time  to  rely  on  feebler 
instruments  for  the  redress  of  wrong.  The  change, 
by  which  private  businesses  were  transformed 
into  limited  liability  companies,  was  going  on  at 
the  same  time;  and  there  was  difficulty  in  main- 
taining the  superiority  of  private  enterprise  in 
the  face  of  the  successes  of  these  great  bodies  for 
associated  enterprise  whose  organisation  was 
similar  in  many  respects  to  that  of  a  department 
of  State.  Under  these  circumstances  there  was  a 
sudden  reaction;  and  many  people,  who  had 
hitherto  been  suspicious  of  State  interference, 
began  to  be  enthusiastic  for  it  as  the  best  and 
practically  the  only  method  for  introducing  real 
improvement  in  the  condition  of  society. 

One  of  the  results  of  the  spread  of  this  convic- 

179 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

tion  has  been  to  stimulate  the  desire  for  obtaining 
political  power,  as  it  seemed  that  this  gave  the 
best  means  of  removing  social  grievances.  The 
fact  of  the  success  of  the  miners'  agitation  for  an 
eight-hour  day  and  of  the  demand  of  the  trades 
unions  for  the  passing  of  the  Trade  Disputes  Act 
showed  that  a  large  section  of  the  community 
could  use  their  political  power  so  as  to  give  effect 
to  their  wishes  for  themselves.  And  this  has  stim- 
ulated the  demand  for  Women's  Suffrage,  as  it  is 
widely  believed  that  women  cannot  hope  to  obtain 
a  redress  for  their  grievances  so  long  as  they  are 
excluded  from  political  power. 

There  is  a  danger,  however,  of  forgetting  that 
State  interference  is  a  very  rough  and  ready  in- 
strument, that  a  measure  from  which  much  was 
hoped  is  often  disappointing  in  its  working,  and 
that  any  social  legislation  is  certain  to  have  in- 
cidental results  which  had  not  been  foreseen,  and 
which  may  be  deleterious  either  to  individuals  or 
society. 

In  one  direction,  indeed.  State  interference 
may  be  positively  injurious.  When  any  duty 
is  directly  undertaken  by  the  State  there  is 
apt  to  be  a  diminution  of  the  sense  of  personal 
responsibility,  and  to  be  a  discouragement  to 
the  discharge  of  personal  duty.    The  standard 

180 


HUMANITARIANISM  AND  COERCION 

which  the  State  can  enforce  is  generally  a  mini- 
mum interpretation  of  what  is  right;  and  parents, 
who  have  kept  their  children  at  school  for  the 
minimum  period  enforced  by  the  State,  are  apt  to 
think  that  they  have  done  all  that  is  needed,  and 
do  not  aim  at  anything  higher.  The  payment  of 
old  age  pensions  by  the  State  has  been  an  enor- 
mous boon  to  many  of  the  aged;  but  it  appears 
to  have  diminished,  and  in  some  quarters  to  have 
extinguished,  a  sense  of  duty  on  the  part  of  grown- 
up children  to  do  anything  whatever  for  the  bene- 
fit of  their  parents. 

The  danger  of  a  decline  in  the  sense  of  personal 
responsibility  is  most  apparent  in  the  industrial 
world.  The  capitalist  —  the  employer  who  car- 
ries out  all  the  conditions  that  are  required  by 
the  factory  inspectors  —  may  feel  that  he  is  dis- 
charged from  any  obligation  to  take  further  con- 
sideration for  the  conditions  under  which  his  em- 
ployees live  and  work;  while  it  is  abundantly 
clear  that  no  increased  sense  of  responsibility  has 
grown  up  among  the  working  classes  pari  passu 
with  the  increase  of  their  political  power.  There 
is  a  lack  of  discipline  either  to  their  own  leaders 
or  to  other  officials,  that  does  not  promise  favour- 
ably for  the  future.  State  interference  is  a  crude 
instrument  for  conferring  physical  boons,  and  it 
seems  as  if  it  might  be  really  injurious  to  personal 

181 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

character.  Whatever  good  it  may  accomplish 
among  masses  of  men  there  must  be  other  means 
of  rousing  higher  ideals  in  individuals;  personal 
ideals  and  personal  effort  initiate  improvement 
that  goes  beyond  what  current  public  opinion 
demands.  The  State  can  at  best  only  bring  the 
laggards  up  to  a  level  that  is  generally  approved. 
Powerful  as  it  is,  where  it  can  be  applied,  coercion 
by  the  State  is  never  inspiring;  we  can  hardly  be 
kept  up  to  the  level  we  have  reached,  and  we 
certainly  cannot  go  beyond  it,  unless  we  can 
rely  on  a  high  sense  of  personal  duty  as  well. 

Humanitarians,  who  are  most  ready  to  have 
recourse  to  coercion  within  the  Realm,  are  some- 
times inclined  to  believe  that  it  is  possible  to 
dispense  with  it  altogether  as  between  nations. 
They  are  deeply  impressed  with  the  horrors  of 
war  and  believe  that  duty  and  interest  alike  ren- 
der the  appeal  to  it  unnecessary :  but,  however  the 
nations  may  be  raised  to  a  higher  moral  standard 
in  future,  a  progressive  society  is  likely  to  find 
diflSculty  in  reconciling  the  keeping  of  promises 
with  the  desire  of  increased  opportunities  for 
progress;  there  is  no  immediate  prospect  that  war 
will  altogether  cease  in  the  near  future.  So  long 
as  any  nation  is  in  danger  of  being  carried  away 
by  national  greed  and  the  desire  to  exploit  other 

182 


HUMANITARIANISM  AND   COERCION 

countries,  there  is  a  risk  of  an  outbreak  of  war; 
and  hence  there  may  be  a  duty  for  a  country  to 
engage  in  war,  not  merely  to  defend  itself,  but 
to  maintain  the  peace  of  the  world  and  to  secure 
opportunities  for  human  progress.  In  so  far  as 
there  is  a  national  duty,  there  is  national  disgrace 
in  neglecting  it.  From  a  religious  standpoint  each 
nation  is  responsible  to  God  for  the  power  and 
opportunity  it  possesses,  and  this  power  and  in- 
fluence is  not  to  be  enjoyed  selfishly,  but  to  be 
employed  generously  and  for  the  good  of  its 
neighbours.  The  people,  who  are  content  to  look 
on  and  to  watch  the  harrying  of  the  weak  by  the 
strong,  are  guilty  of  selfish  connivance  at  a  crime, 
if  they  could  have  used  their  influence  to  prevent 
or  to  stop  it.  There  is  something  of  the  spirit  of 
Cain  in  seeking  for  an  excuse  for  disregarding  this 
obligation.  To  make  common  cause  with  those 
who  are  oppressed,  or  exploited  by  ruthless  at- 
tacks, may  be  a  duty,  and  in  God's  sight  the  neg- 
lect of  a  duty  is  a  crime.  In  Old  Testament  times 
the  selfish  indifference  of  those  who  held  aloof 
when  they  might  have  struck  a  blow  against  an 
invader,  was  bitterly  denounced.  Nations  which 
do  not  use  their  opportunities  aright  are  in  dan- 
ger of  losing  the  prestige  and  influence  with  which 
they  have  been  entrusted. 

On  the  other  hand,  humanitarianism  has  not 

183 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

always  been  ready  to  refrain  from  attempting  to 
force  other  nations  into  improved  conditions  of 
life.   Chivalrous  attempts  to  coerce  half-civilised 
or  decadent  governments  may  be  generous  and 
heroic,  but  they  do  not  make  for  peace.    The 
knight  errant,  who  went  about  to  redress  wrongs, 
found  plenty  of  occasion  to  pick  a  quarrel;  and 
the  nation,  which  feels  free  to  champion  the  cause 
of  oppressed  humanity  anywhere,  may  expect  to 
be  often  embroiled  with  other  peoples.     Public 
opinion,  which  refuses  to  take  up  a  quarrel  unless 
there  are  definite  grounds  for  it,  is  sound;  and  it  is 
a  Christian  duty  to  avoid  occasions  for  war  in 
every  possible  way.   Any  country  which  is  punc- 
tilious about  demanding  respect  for  her  citizens 
and  their  rights  may  only  be  asking  what  is  just, 
and  yet  be  blamable  for  allowing  the  matter  to 
become  a  cause  of  quarrel.  Though  it  is  not  pos- 
sible to  stamp  out  war,  it  ought  to  be  possible  to 
refrain  from  giving  way  to  national  passion  and 
to  limit  recourse  to  war  to  cases  in  which  it  is 
undertaken  as  the  necessary  means  for  securing 
public  good,  or  righting  a  public  wrong.    Chris- 
tianity goes  further  than  mere  humanitarianism 
in  guarding  against  the  occasions  of  war,  while  it 
has  in  the  past  set  an  example  of  trying  by  agree- 
ment to  reduce  the  horrors  of  war;  there  is  still 
need  to  make  more  generally  applicable  the  prin- 

184 


HUMANITARIANISM  AND   COERCION 

ciples  which  the  Mediaeval  Church  enjoined  in 
regard  to  private  war.^  The  truce  of  God  was 
designed  to  limit  the  scope  of  war  and  to  protect 
the  civil  population  from  its  ravages;  whereas  it  is 
sometimes  urged  in  modern  times  that  the  most 
humanitarian  course  is  to  render  war  ruthless,  so 
that  it  may  be  speedily  over.  But  the  Christian 
tradition  as  to  the  conduct  of  war  has  been  ex- 
tended by  such  agreements  as  the  Geneva  Con- 
vention and  the  Red  Cross  Movement.  The 
principle  that  war,  when  it  is  necessary,  should 
be  conducted  with  a  full  sense  of  responsibility  to 
God,  applies  not  only  to  national  action  but  to  the 
personal  character  and  conduct  of  the  soldiers. 
All  honour  is  due  to  the  men  who  voluntarily  risk 
their  lives  and  submit  to  discipline,  so  as  to  be  the 
instruments  through  which  their  country  fulfils  a 
duty.  There  is  no  profession  which  gives  greater 
opportunity  than  soldiers  have  for  cultivating  the 
virtues  of  courage  and  devotion  to  duty,  and  the 
manly  habits  of  chivalry,  modesty  and  obedience. 
The  civilian  may  pursue  the  routine  of  daily  life 
in  a  Christian  fashion,  but  the  soldier  may  be 
inspired  by  his  religion  to  conduct  that  is  heroic. 
We  cannot  afford  to  ignore  the  teaching  of  the 
Middle  Ages  as  to  the  conduct  of  war,  and  we  have 
the  means  of  bringing  it  to  bear  not  only  through 

^  See  Appendix  on  the  Attitude  of  the  Church  towards  War. 

185 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

knightly  orders,  but  by  international  agreement 
and  through  the  personal  sense  of  what  is  honour- 
able. 

Just  as  we  cannot  rely  on  the  coercive  power  of 
the  State  as  the  sole  instrument  of  improvement 
within  the  country,  so  we  cannot  rely  on  the 
proposals  made  by  humanitarians  as  sufficient  for 
introducing  a  permanent  remedy  in  international 
relations.  Humanitarianism  is  excellent  as  a  pal- 
liative in  dealing  with  the  symptoms  of  human 
passions  which  express  themselves  in  war;  but  we 
shall  make  a  grave  mistake  if  we  allow  ourselves 
to  suppose  that  because  it  succeeds  as  a  palliative, 
it  is  making  progress  towards  effecting  a  cure. 
Its  diagnosis  is  defective,  and  the  remedies  it 
proposes  are  quite  inadequate.  It  is  shortsighted 
and  fixes  its  gaze  on  the  physical  suffering  of  indi- 
viduals, and  neglects  the  real  source  of  the  mis- 
chief, in  human  passion  and  ambition,  and  the 
lasting  effect  on  current  opinion  and  feeling  in  a 
community.  It  concentrates  attention  on  the 
dispute  between  one  nation  and  another,  and  the 
possibility  of  adjusting  their  respective  interests, 
and  neglects  the  crime  of  breaking  the  public 
peace  and  the  need  of  obtaining  some  guarantee 
against  a  repetition  of  the  crime.  The  action  it 
would  propose  is  merely  repressive  —  the  ulti- 

186 


HUMANITARIANISM  AND   COERCION 

mate  suppression  of  war  by  international  author- 
ity, and  in  the  mean  time  the  Hmitation  of  arma- 
ments. But  these  suggestions  are  inadequate,  and 
it  is  not  easy  to  see  how  an  authority  could  be 
built  up  which  would  inspire  respect  and  enforce 
its  dictates,  and  the  supposed  advantage  which 
would  ensue  to  the  cause  of  peace  from  a  reduc- 
tion of  armaments  is  illusory,  though  there  would 
be  a  large  financial  saving  if  it  could  be  carried 
through.    But  the  expectation  that  by  reducing 
the  means  of  carrying  on  war  there  would  be  less 
danger  of  the  outbreak  of  war,  does  not  rest  on 
any  basis  of  fact;  it  is  a  mere  assumption.   The 
provision  of  apparatus  for  meeting  the  danger  of 
fire,  and  the  cultivation  of  efficiency  in  the  organ- 
isation of  the  brigade,  does  not  tempt  the  authori- 
ties of  a  town  to  set  it  on  fire.  There  are  no  men 
who  are  more  familiar  with  the  horrors  of  war 
than  the  British  soldiers;  and  the  effort  to  make 
that  army  efficient  does  not  lead  them  to  endeav- 
our to  embroil  their  country  with  other  nations. 
It  is  absurd  to  raise  an  outcry  against  a  military 
caste,  and  to  overlook  the  real  causes  of  war  in  the 
national  pride  and  determination  to  assert  a  na- 
tional interest;  from  these  democracies  have  no 
immunity.    Humanitarianism  lays  the  blame  on 
the  means  of  carrying  on  war,  as  if  they  were  bad 
in  themselves,  instead  of  inculcating  a  sense  of 

187 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

responsibility  in  the  use  of  them.  In  the  same 
way,  because  nations  have  been  organised  for 
war,  humanitarianism  deprecates  the  very  exist- 
ence of  nationality;  it  disintegrates  society  into  a 
mass  of  separate  individuals,  with  nothing  to  take 
them  out  of  themselves,  or  to  elevate  them  above 
the  narrow  life  of  dwelling  on  their  own  interests 
and  indulging  their  own  tastes.  The  love  of  coun- 
try is  the  form  in  which  higher  and  wider  influ- 
ences make  their  strongest  appeal;  the  history  of 
a  nation  is  a  continual  source  of  inspiration  from 
the  past,  and  shapes  the  form  which  aspiration 
takes  for  the  future.  To  attack  national  life,  as  if 
it  were  in  itself  evil,  because  it  has  become  the 
basis  of  military  organisation,  is  to  abandon  and 
destroy  the  most  effective  instrument  for  enno- 
bling the  people  of  any  community,  and  for  ena- 
bling them  to  bring  a  wholesome  influence  to  bear 
on  the  world.  In  pinning  its  faith  to  changes  in 
the  conditions  in  which  war  has  arisen,  humani- 
tarianism is  shallow  and  superficial;  it  would  limit 
the  means  of  warfare,  and  break  up  any  organisa- 
tion which  lends  itself  to  war;  but  Christianity 
takes  the  more  practical  course  by  attempting  to 
go  to  the  source  of  the  evil,  in  human  hearts  and 
dispositions.  There  is  no  hope  of  any  thorough 
cure  so  long  as  we  are  content  to  look  at  con- 
ditions and  means  and  organisation  for  warfare, 

188 


HUMANITARIANISM  AND   COERCION 

and  do  not  seek  to  deal  with  the  arbitrariness  and 
passion  in  which  it  has  its  source.  Christianity 
goes  straight  to  the  root  of  the  matter;  it  seeks  to 
eradicate  the  evil  element  in  national  life  and  thus 
aims  at  producing  a  complete  cure. 

IV.    POLITICAL   CHRISTIANITY 

Exaggerated  reliance  on  the  coercive  power 
of  the  State  has  given  rise  to  a  new  view  of  the 
nature  of  Christian  duty.  Those  who  are  respon- 
sible for  framing  any  legislative  measures  which 
may  bring  about  social  reform,  have  not  an  easy 
task  in  trying  to  carry  them  through.  There  are 
probably  vested  interests  with  which  they  may 
have  to  contend,  and  there  is  always  a  difficulty 
in  overriding  private  rights  in  order  to  secure  an 
admitted  public  benefit.  It  is  also  certain  that 
there  will  be  grave  differences  of  opinion  as  to  the 
best  method  of  dealing  with  any  particular  evil; 
and  those,  who  are  fully  convinced  of  the  neces- 
sity of  State  action,  may  often  be  much  divided 
as  to  the  form  which  that  action  can  wisely  take. 
Under  these  circumstances  the  bold  politician 
feels  the  need  of  extraneous  help  to  strengthen 
his  hands,  and  is  inclined  to  believe  that  he  has 
little  chance  of  effecting  his  purpose  unless  it  can 
be  carried  through  on  a  wave  of  popular  feeling. 
In  this  way  Mr.  Lloyd  George  appealed  to  a 

189 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

gathering  of  the  clergy  of  all  denominations  at 
Cardiff  in  October,  1911,  and  urged  that  it  was 
their  chief  duty  as  Christian  ministers  to  rouse 
the  public  conscience  to  the  existence  of  some  evil, 
so  as  to  give  ample  support  to  those  politicians 
who  were  endeavouring  to  devise  a  remedy  and 
to  bring  it  into  operation  through  the  coercive 
power  of  the  State.  He  said  he  had  come  there  to 
help  to  rouse  a  spirit  that  will  compel  every  party 
in  its  turn  to  deal  with  these  social  evils;  "and 
'that,"  he  said,  "seems  to  me  to  be  the  sphere  of 

*  influence  of  the  churches,  —  not  to  support  par- 

*  ticular  parties,  not  to  advocate  particular  meas- 
*ures  of  reform,  but  to  create  an  atmosphere  in 

*  which  it  will  be  impossible  for  anybody  to  re- 
*main  a  ruler  of  the  realm  unless  he  deals  with 

*  those  social  problems.  .  .  .  The  first  thing  we 
have  got  to  do  is  to  create  a  temper,  a  spirit,  an 
atmosphere  that  will  compel  men  of  all  parties 
to  deal  with  these  problems,  whichever  party  is 
in  power  for  the  time  being.  The  responsibility 
of  the  churches  is  this.  The  churches  of  Christ 
in  this  land  guide,  control  and  direct  the  con- 
science of  the  community.  No  interest,  how- 
ever great  it  may  be,  can  long  withstand  the 
resolute  united  opposition  of  the  churches. 
Public  opinion  in  this  land  invariably  responds 
to  the  call  of  the  United  Churches.  .  .  .  He  did 

190 


HUMANITARIANISM  AND  COERCION 

**not  agree  with  the  view  that  the  Church  was 
"concerned  solely  with  spiritual  things.  .  .  . 
"Those  who  held  this  narrow  view  were  false  to 
the  traditions  of  the  Christian  Church.  To-day 
we  had  greater  poverty  in  the  land  in  the  aggre- 
gate than  we  ever  had.  There  was  a  more  severe 
economic  bondage;  for  labour  to-day  was  not 
always  guaranteed  sustenance  or  security  —  a 
condition  of  things  foreign  to  the  darker  Middle 
Ages. 

"What  was  the  function  of  the  Church  in  refer- 
ence to  social  evils.?  The  function  of  the  Church 
is  not  to  engage  in  party  brawls.  It  is  not  to 
urge  any  specific  measures.  It  is  to  create  an 
atmosphere  in  which  the  rulers  of  this  country, 
"whether  in  the  Legislature  or  the  municipalities, 
not  only  can  engage  in  reforming  these  dire  evils, 
but  in  which  it  will  be  impossible  not  to  do  so."^ 
That  a  Cabinet  Minister  should  express  this 
view  of  the  function  of  Christianity  is  natural 
enough.  Many  of  the  church-going  public  refrain 
from  taking  a  very  active  part  in  party  politics; 
but  those  voters,  who  cannot  be  counted  upon  to 
vote  on  party  lines,  may  exercise  a  great  influence 
in  turning  the  scale  if  they  can  be  induced  to 
intervene;  and  pulpit  addresses  might  be  an 
effective  means  of  reaching  some  of  the  doubtful 

1  The  Times,  December  30,  1911,  p.  5. 
191 


« 
it 

« 

<<  • 

<( 

<< 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

voters.  It  is  a  matter  of  surprise,  however,  that 
these  views  should  have  been  received  with  enthu- 
siasm in  a  large  gathering  of  Christian  ministers, 
since  this  new  opinion  assigns  such  a  meagre  place 
to  Christian  influence.  This  doctrine  would  have 
been  indignantly  repudiated  by  the  leaders  of  any 
of  the  great  religious  movements  since  the  Refor- 
mation; for  the  doctrine  that  the  Church  is  only 
to  be  the  handmaid  of  politicians,  and  to  help 
them  to  carry  on  their  work  implies  the  degra- 
dation of  the  ministerial  office.  If  the  best  that 
Christianity  can  do  is  to  help  the  politician  to 
carry  through  his  crude  measures  for  the  benefit 
of  the  masses,  the  Church  abandons  the  claim  to 
inspire  with  high  ideals,  and  to  raise  the  tone  of 
ordinary  life.  Neither  the  Presbyterians,  who 
rated  ministerial  authority  so  high,  nor  the  Inde- 
pendents, who  were  so  eager  to  withdraw  from 
the  cares  and  entanglements  of  secular  life,  would 
have  regarded  the  undignified  role  which  Mr. 
Lloyd  George  assigns  them  as  at  all  appropriate 
to  the  Christian  ministry. 

Despite  his  disclaimer,  it  may  be  doubted  if 
Mr.  Lloyd  George  really  holds  that  ministers  of 
religion  should  be  content  with  creating  an  atmos- 
phere. It  is  rather  a  futile  occupation;  for  many 
years  past  there  has  been  an  active  commendation 
of  universal  peace,  and  a  propaganda  against  war- 

192 


HUMANITARIANISM  AND  COERCION 

fare.  Fifteen  years  ago  the  Czar  took  an  active 
part  in  promulgating  such  views  through  the  Con- 
ference at  the  Hague:  but  the  energy  of  national 
life  demands  scope  for  expansion;  it  is  not  to  be 
held  back  by  platitudes.  The  war  in  the  Far 
East,  the  war  in  the  Near  East,  and  the  ruthless 
invasion  of  Belgium,  are  striking  illustrations  of 
the  ineffectiveness  of  the  solemn  enunciation  of 
humanitarian  sentiment. 

To  produce  the  desired  result,  it  is  necessary 
not  only  to  create  an  atmosphere,  but  to  agitate 
it  into  a  gale.  Such  agitation  must  almost  neces- 
sarily involve  the  clergy  in  active  participa- 
tion in  party  politics,  by  signifying  approval  of 
the  measures  of  one  party,  and  denouncing  the 
neglect  of  the  other.  Party  government  is,  on  the 
whole,  the  method  by  which  action  can  be  taken 
in  democratic  communities.  Its  disadvantages 
are  obvious,  though  it  has  many  merits  which 
may  easily  be  overlooked;  both  parties  are  agreed 
on  the  aims  they  pursue  for  the  good  of  the  com- 
munity; they  differ  as  to  the  means  which  it  is 
wisest  to  adopt  at  any  place  or  time,  and  as  to  the 
relative  importance  of  certain  courses  of  action. 
In  all  political  action  moral  questions  are  in- 
volved, as  to  the  bearing  of  proposed  changes  of 
the  law  on  human  relationships.    There  is  no 

193 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

proposal  witli  regard  to  the  material  welfare  of 
the  community  which  does  not  affect  individuals 
personally;  but  fanaticism  fastens  on  the  moral 
element,  in  particular  questions,  and  treats  it  as 
if  it  could  be  isolated  so  as  to  be  the  sole  issue. 
The  ministers  of  religion,  who  at  any  time  feel  it  a 
duty  to  bring  their  influence  to  bear  in  favour  of 
the  measures  proposed  by  one  particular  party,  ^ 
are  liable  to  the  temptations  which  beset  all  those 
who  are  engaged  in  political  agitation,  of  using 
exaggerated  language  which  may  neither  be 
strictly  true  nor  wholly  charitable.  Indeed  the 
preacher  who  makes  an  occasional  incursion  into 
the  sphere  of  party  politics  is  in  greater  danger  of 
becoming  a  partisan  than  the  practised  political 
speaker,  who  is  habitually  on  his  guard.  The  man 
who  feels  that  he  is  advocating  a  great  moral  cause, 
is  in  danger  of  doing  it  fanatically,  and  of  disre- 
garding any  questions  that  are  raised  as  to  the 
wisdom  and  probable  results  of  the  particular 
measures  proposed.  The  clergy,  who  are  habitu- 
ally thinking,  not  of  the  results  of  action,  but  of 
the  motives  which  lead  to  it,  are  particularly  apt 
to  attribute  interested  motives  to  their  political 
opponents,  instead  of  contenting  themselves  with 
arguing  as  to  the  wisdom  or  unwisdom  of  the 
measures  proposed. 

1  Cunningham,  The  Cure  of  Souls,  p.  186.  The  Clergy  and  Party  Politics. 

194 


HUMANITARIANISM   AND   COERCION 

The  relative  merits  of  Free  Trade  and  Protec- 
tion have  been  a  subject  of  constant  discussion  in 
Great  Britain  for  the  last  twelve  years.  Like  other 
political  questions  it  seems  to  be  in  part  a  question 
of  expediency;  the  Tariff  arrangements  which  are 
best  for  a  community  at  one  time,  may  not  be 
best  at  another;  and  that  which  is  best  for  one 
country  may  be  injurious  to  another.  But  in  1904, 
when  this  question  had  become  the  main  issue  at 
one  or  two  by-elections,  several  eminent  ecclesias- 
tics felt  it  a  duty  to  throw  themselves  into  the 
fray  with  fanatical  zeal.  They  contemptuously 
brushed  aside  the  "salient  details"  in  regard  to 
the  economic  questions  as  "superficial  dis- 
cussion," and  called  attention  to  "certain  fun- 
"damental  judgments  ethical  and  social"  which 
seemed  to  them  "to  be  profoundly  involved 
in  the  issue."  It  will  not  then  be  deemed 
impertinent  or  intrusive,"  they  say,  "if  those 
who  are  charged  with  any  special  responsibility 
for  the  national  conscience  venture  to  detach 
and  emphasize  these  essential  considerations 
which  are  vital  to  the  verdict  that  is  to  be  given." 
They  therefore  invited  additional  signatures  to  a 
declaration  in  which  they  denounced  a  system  of 
Protection,  because  "in  itself  it  inevitably  tends 
"to  evoke  the  motives  and  foster  the  tendencies 
"against  which  we  are  all  accustomed  to  protest 

195 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

"as  immoral.  It  cannot  succeed  without  increas- 
"ing  the  severance  of  nations;  it  intensifies  ri val- 
ines and  strengthens  barriers;  it  is  a  foe  to  peace, 
"and  to  the  hopes  of  a  wider  unity  of  workers. 
"No  nation  can  adopt  it  without  danger  to  the 
"uprightness  of  its  pubHc  life;  it  makes  bribery 
"pay;  it  creates  monopoHes;  it  opens  the  door  of 
"Parliamentary  lobbies  to  all  those  influences 
"which  it  is  our  main  object  to  exclude.  It  is 
"bound  by  its  very  conditions  to  tell  hardest 
"against  those  who  are  least  able  to  protect  them- 
"  selves."  ^  When  we  remember  how  recently 
Great  Britain  has  abandoned  a  protective  system, 
it  is  not  easy  to  be  patient  with  this  disparage- 
ment of  our  countrymen  in  previous  ages;  neither 
France,  Germany,  nor  the  United  States,  not  to 
mention  our  own  colonies,  can  be  expected  to  take 
this  claim  on  the  part  of  Free  Traders  to  superior 
virtue  quite  seriously. 

The  moralist  is  in  some  danger  of  falling  into 
shallow  cynicism,  when  he  denounces  motives 
which  are  gratuitously  attributed  to  opponents, 
instead  of  contenting  himseK  with  considering 
whether  his  own  opinions  are  well  founded  or  not. 
He  professes,  too,  that  he  does  not  take  part  in 
public  affairs  regularly,  but  only  when  he  sees 
that  a  moral  question  arises;  but  he  may  be  guilty 

1  Guardian,  23d  November,  1914. 
196 


HUMANITARIANISM  AND   COERCION 

of  introducing  this  element  of  bitterness  and  of 
lowering  the  whole  tone  of  public  discussion.  It  is 
specially  to  be  feared  that  the  Christian  minister 
who  feels  called  upon  to  use  the  pulpit  for  polit- 
ical agitation,  is  going  outside  the  terms  of  his 
commission;  he  has  a  trust  imposed  upon  him, 
and  it  is  his  duty  to  declare  the  eternal  truth 
which  has  been  revealed  to  man  by  Our  Lord. 
But  in  connection  with  the  passing  of  any  legisla- 
tion the  questions  which  arise  are  chiefly  matters 
of  expediency,  and  of  forecasting  the  probable  re- 
sults of  the  measure.  These  are  at  best  matters  of 
opinion.  The  preacher's  opinion  may  be  a  good 
opinion,  or  it  may  be  a  mistaken  opinion,  but  it 
has  no  pretensions  whatever  to  be  a  declaration 
of  Divine  Truth. 

The  seventeenth-century  Calvinists  endeav- 
oured by  means  of  Ecclesiastical  Courts  to  coerce 
men  into  conforming  to  a  godly  polity  over  every 
part  of  which  scriptural  authority  could  be 
claimed.  The  Neo-Calvinists,  with  modern  ideals 
of  what  a  polity  ought  to  be,  are  inclined  to  invoke 
State  aid  to  bring  pressure  upon  other  people  so  as 
to  force  them  to  do  their  duties.  Humanitarians 
are  often  content  with  pointing  out  the  neglects 
of  other  people,  and  with  saying  they  should  be 
forced  to  live  up  to  a  different  standard.    It  is 

197 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

unfortunate  that  so  much  Christian  energy  should 
be  directed  into  channels  where  newspapers  and 
public  meetings  can  act  more  effectively,  and 
should  be  diverted  for  the  special  work,  for 
the  welfare  of  the  community,  which  Christian- 
ity can  do,  and  which  is  in  danger  of  being  neg- 
lected if  Christians  fail  to  undertake  it.  The 
coercive  power  of  the  State  is  effective  within 
certain  limits,  but  it  has  limitations:  it  can 
put  down  patent  evil,  and  thus  improve  the 
condition  of  the  masses.  It  can  even  coerce  so 
as  to  bring  the  general  level  of  life  up  to  a  given 
standard,  but  it  has  very  little  power  of  taking 
an  initiative  or  acting  as  a  pioneer.  This  can 
be  best  done  by  individuals;  and  the  history 
of  social  improvement  of  every  kind  shows  that 
individuals,  who  cherished  a  high  ideal  or  had  a 
strong  sense  of  duty,  have  made  a  new  departure 
which  public  bodies  have  been  gradually  per- 
suaded to  follow.  While  the  State  is  powerless  in 
this  matter  and  may  even  narrow  the  scope  of  in- 
dividual action,  Christianity  can  bring  an  enor- 
mous influence  to  bear  on  individual  lives  person- 
ally. It  can  set  before  them  high  ideals  for  human 
life  both  personally  and  socially,  and  it  can  stim- 
ulate a  sense  of  duty.  This  is  the  special  work 
which  Christianity  has  done  in  the  past,  and  is 
doing  at  the  present  day,  and  there  is  no  other 

198 


HUMANITARIANISM  AND   COERCION 

doctrine  which  can  claim  to  do  it  more  effectively. 
Christianity  need  not  content  itself  with  merely 
aiding  in  the  coercive  activities  of  the  State,  since 
it  can  supplement  these  activities  by  influencing 
individuals  in  a  fashion  that  the  State  cannot 
attempt. 


VII 

CLASS  INTERESTS  AND  NATIONAL  INTERESTS 
I.    SUBSTITUTES   FOR   THE   SENSE   OF   DUTY 

The  nineteenth  century  had  awakened  England 
to  a  sense  of  the  danger  of  giving  free  play  to  ego- 
ism and  individual  interest,  and  to  recognise  that 
it  might  be  necessary  to  introduce  coercion  for  the 
sake  of  the  community  as  a  whole.  On  the  other 
hand,  more  and  more  stress  was  laid  on  the 
growth  of  class  interest;  many  workingmen  began 
to  look  beyond  their  own  immediate  surround- 
ings; they  endeavoured  to  take  account  of  a  longer 
prospect  than  their  own  lives,  and  to  have  regard 
to  others  who  were  situated  similarly  to  them- 
selves. The  associations  of  men  for  common  ob- 
jects have  had  a  very  high  value;  but  for  this  very 
reason  there  seems  to  be  a  danger  of  exaggerating 
what  they  can  accomplish,  and  of  looking  on  loy- 
alty to  an  association  as  if  it  could  be  a  substitute 
for  any  deeper  sense  of  duty.  The  principle  of 
association  is  deeply  rooted  in  English  soil;  the 
guilds  of  the  Middle  Ages  can  be  traced  back 
to  very  early  times,  and  survivors  of  them  still 
exist.  It  may  be  said,  however,  that  on  the  whole 

200 


CLASS  AND  NATIONAL  INTERESTS 

mediaeval  guilds  existed  to  carry  out  common 
duties,  —  either  in  regard  to  religious  conduct,  or 
in  insuring  that  industrial  callings  were  practised 
in  such  a  fashion  as  to  promote  the  good  of  civic 
communities.  Again  in  the  eighteenth  century  the 
societies  to  which  allusion  has  already  been  made, 
were  founded  chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  supple- 
menting the  efforts  of  the  State  in  discharging 
public  duties.  The  nineteenth-century  associa- 
tions have,  on  the  whole,  been  of  a  different  char- 
acter; they  have  been  formed  by  groups  of  men 
who  desired  to  promote  certain  interests  which 
they  had  in  common,  and  they  have  brought 
about  a  great  change  in  the  condition  of  the  work- 
ing classes,  not  only  on  the  material  side,  but 
intellectually  and  morally  as  well. 

One  of  the  greatest  difficulties  with  which  the 
labouring  classes  had  to  contend  during  the  Long 
War  arose  from  the  high  prices  which  they  were 
charged  for  goods,  especially  in  cases  where  they 
were  far  from  a  town,  and  were  compelled  to  deal 
at  one  particular  shop.  With  the  view  of  meeting 
this  difficulty  a  village  shop  was  established  on 
co-operative  principles  in  Mongewell  in  Oxford- 
shire in  1797,  and  its  success  was  such  as  to  secure 
the  attention  of  philanthropists.  Not  much  came 
of  the  matter,  however,  for  nearly  thirty  years; 
till  a  similar  experiment  was  made  at  Rochdale  by 

201 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

the  Pioneers;  and  since  that  time  the  co-operative 
movement  has  developed  in  other  directions,  so 
that  there  is  an  enormous  network  of  stores  in 
which  the  trading  is  carried  on  by  means  of  cap- 
ital formed  by  those  who  deal  at  the  shop,  and 
on  terms  on  which  the  consumers  of  goods  get 
the  full  benefit  of  the  profits  in  their  own  retail 
trade.  Besides  the  saving  thus  effected,  and  the 
improvement  in  the  quality  of  the  goods  supplied, 
there  has  been  a  gradual  development  of  esprit  de 
corps  in  the  consciousness  of  combining  with 
many  others  for  a  common  object;  while  the  car- 
rying on  of  the  business  of  these  societies  is  very 
educative,  from  the  number  and  varied  nature  of 
the  interests  with  which  these  societies  are  con- 
cerned. 

Robert  Owen,  who  had  managed  a  cotton  mill 
at  New  Lanark,  formulated  a  new  view  of  society 
which  seemed  to  open  up  immense  possibilities; 
he  recognised  that  the  interests  of  capital  and  la- 
bour were  the  same  in  the  long  run,  and  he  en- 
deavoured to  carry  on  the  cotton  manufacture  on 
the  principle  of  inducing  all  who  were  concerned 
in  his  mill  to  devote  themselves  to  this  common 
interest.  For  some  time  the  business  prospered, 
but  his  subsequent  experiments  at  Orbiston  and 
New  Harmony  in  Indiana,  were  never  successful. 
He  had,  however,  attracted  an  immense  amount 

202 


CLASS  AND  NATIONAL  INTERESTS 

of  attention,  and  had  succeeded  in  creating  the 
impression  that  there  was  a  great  future  before 
the  principle  of  co-operation  in  the  organisation 
of  production.  Since  his  time  there  have  been 
many  experiments  in  copartnership;  notably  one 
in  coal  mining  at  Messrs.  Briggs'  collieries  in  1865; 
and  though  there  has  been  much  discouragement 
at  the  slowness  of  the  progress,  there  is  an  increas- 
ing circle  who  have  confidence  in  the  movement. 
Very  striking  successes  attended  the  efforts  of 
Sir  George  Livesey  to  introduce  this  system  into 
the  South  London  Gas  Works,  and  he  seems  to 
have  overcome  the  difficulties  in  a  business  car- 
ried on  under  special  conditions.  As  there  are 
comparatively  few  fluctuations  in  the  output,  the 
circumstances  of  the  business  are  special,  and 
there  are  other  trades  in  which  it  may  be  im- 
possible to  make  any  change  of  the  kind.  But 
even  if  it  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  panacea,  the 
principle  of  association  may  be  so  introduced  as 
to  ease  the  strain  in  the  relations  of  capital  and 
labour,  and  to  secure  a  real  gain  where  it  proves 
successful. 

The  Friendly  Society  Movement  is  another  ap- 
plication of  the  same  principle;  many  such  associa- 
tions were  formed  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and 
they  obtained  important  status  from  the  Act  for 

203 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

the  Encouragement  of  Friendly  Societies  which 
was  passed  in  1793.  They  fell  under  a  cloud  at  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  politi- 
cal conditions  roused  public  suspicion  in  regard  to 
the  purpose  of  Working  Class  Associations,  but 
they  have  outlived  this  suspicion.  The  Manches- 
ter Unity  of  Odd  Fellows  has  had  a  prosperous 
career  for  more  than  a  century,  and  the  Foresters 
and  Hearts  of  Oak  are  also  great  national  insti- 
tutions. There  have  been  hundreds  of  village 
clubs  which  have  devoted  themselves  to  the  same 
work  of  encouraging  men  to  combine  to  ensure 
against  the  pressure  of  occasional  stress  from  ill- 
ness or  unemployment.  It  is  perhaps  the  greatest 
compliment  which  these  societies  could  have 
earned  that  so  much  of  their  work  has  been  taken 
over  under  the  Insurance  Act  of  1912:  though 
it  may  be  feared  that  government  routine  will 
hamper  individual  initiative  and  prevent  the 
growth  of  esprit  de  corps. 

Most  remarkable  of  all  has  been  the  growth  of 
trade  societies  in  which  men  have  combined  to 
maintain  a  common  standard  of  life.  The  mem- 
bers of  trade  unions  have  been  brought  into  con- 
flict with  employers  at  many  different  points,  but 
their  aim  through  it  all  has  been  the  maintenance 
and  improvement  of  their  standard  of  life.  They 
have  done  excellent  work,  that  is  hardly  heard  of 

204 


CLASS   AND   NATIONAL  INTERESTS 

by  the  public,  in  bringing  cases  where  the  law  has 
been  neglected  under  the  notice  of  inspectors,  and 
in  checking  malingering  and  assisting  in  carrying 
out  the  Compensation  Acts  fairly.  The  organisa- 
tion of  labour  has  proved  on  the  whole  a  conven- 
ience in  large  businesses  which  have  outgrown 
patriarchal  methods  of  management,  though 
friction  has  arisen  and  is  likely  to  arise  over  the 
policy  which  the  unions  sometimes  pursue.  Where 
they  have  attempted  to  secure  a  benefit  by  re- 
strictive methods  that  raise  the  price  of  goods  to 
consumers,  their  action  has  interfered  with  the 
development  of  their  own  industry  and  been  in- 
jurious to  their  own  class.  But  even  when  occa- 
sional errors  of  judgment  are  taken  into  account, 
the  beneficial  influence  they  have  exercised  has 
been  very  remarkable.  They  have  called  forth  a 
strong  esprit  de  corps,  and  have  awakened  among 
their  leaders  an  earnest  desire  to  take  an  active 
part  in  the  government  of  the  realm,  and  thus  to 
maintain  the  important  interests  for  which  they 
are  banded  together. 

II.    INADEQUACY   OF   CLASS   INTERESTS 

The  co-operative  movement,  which  rests  on  the 
principle  of  association  for  the  pursuit  of  common 
interests,  has  received  a  cordial  welcome  in  many 
quarters,  and  has  roused  the  most  sanguine  ex- 

205 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

pectatlons.  The  advocates  of  laissez-faire  and  of 
freedom  for  the  individual  felt  that  this  move- 
ment was,  at  any  rate  in  its  beginnings,  entirely 
consistent  with  the  doctrine  to  which  they  were 
so  much  attached.  The  individual  was  wise  to 
combine  with  other  men  to  advance  their  inter- 
ests, so  long  as  they  did  not  inflict  injury  upon 
others  or  the  public;  and  the  co-operative  move- 
ment, which  had  the  effect  of  cutting  down  mo- 
nopolists' gains  and  securing  a  better  supply  of 
the  necessaries  of  life,  was  a  form  of  self-help  with 
which  they  could  heartily  sympathise. 

Co-operation  also  met  with  the  approval  of 
those  who  were  enthusiasts  for  education.  The 
very  essence  of  the  system  lay  in  helping  men  to 
have  a  more  intelligent  understanding  of  their 
own  interests;  not  to  be  content  to  live  from 
hand  to  mouth,  but  to  consider  by  what  steps 
they  and  their  fellows  might  improve  their  posi- 
tion in  the  long  run.  The  leaders  of  the  co-opera- 
tive movement  from  the  first  realised  this  so 
strongly,  that  they  set  aside  a  portion  of  their 
trading  profits  for  educational  purposes;  they 
recognised  that  the  greeds  and  passions  of  the 
moment  were  enemies  with  which  they  had  to 
contend,  and  that  the  progress  of  their  move- 
ment involved  the  cultivation  of  enlightened  and 
rational  self-interest. 

206 


CLASS  AND   NATIONAL  INTERESTS 

Further,  there  were  eminent  men  who  recog- 
nised that  the  co-operative  movement  was  conso- 
nant with  the  teaching  of  Christianity,  that  men 
learnt,  in  pursuing  a  common  rather  than  a  private 
interest,  to  think  not  only  of  their  own  things, 
but  also  of  those  of  others.  In  the  "  forties  "  Mau- 
rice and  Kingsley  threw  themselves  heartily  into 
advocating  the  movement,  not  only  by  writing 
Tracts  for  the  People,  but  by  the  experiments 
which  they  started;  and  in  the  "eighties"  Bishop 
Westcott  cherished  high  expectations  of  the  re- 
sults which  might  be  obtained  through  the  further 
progress  of  co-operation. 

At  the  same  time  it  is  to  be  feared  that  these 
hopes  are  somewhat  exaggerated,  and  that  the 
principle  of  association  for  promoting  common 
interests  will  not  suffice  to  solve  the  practical  diffi- 
culties of  the  day.  It  does  not  foster  a  sense  of 
duty  to  the  community,  but  aims  instead  at  secur- 
ing objects  which  men  have  in  common,  and  at 
satisfying  wishes  of  which  they  are  conscious. 
All  can  realise  the  benefit  of  obtaining  better 
goods  at  lower  prices,  or  the  advantage  of  se- 
curing themselves  against  unforeseen  emergen- 
cies; they  can  easily  understand  the  good  which 
may  accrue,  if  not  to  themselves  to  their  chil- 
dren, from  anything  that  is  done  for  raising  the 

207 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

standard  of  living.  But  although  it  is  true  that 
all  the  citizens  are  interested  in  the  prosperity 
of  the  nation  as  a  whole,  it  is  yet  true  that  the 
advantages  are  so  distant,  either  in  place  or  time, 
that  it  is  difficult  for  the  individual  to  realise 
them  at  all,  and  that  they  do  not  appeal  to  him. 
He  may  be  shocked  to  hear  of  inhumanities  in  dis- 
tant lands,  but  he  does  not  see  that  they  are  his 
affair,  or  that  he  can  help  them;  and  he  may  be 
interested  in  forecasts  in  regard  to  posterity,  but 
he  does  not  find  them  convincing  or  take  them  to 
heart.  He  is  in  danger  of  ignoring  the  duties  of 
the  community  except  in  so  far  as  he  and  his 
neighbours  are  concerned.  A  political  society 
built  on  the  model  of  a  voluntary  association  for 
the  pursuit  of  common  interests  can  hardly  take 
into  account  the  far-reaching  influence  on  the 
world,  or  on  its  own  future,  which  may  be  exer- 
cised by  a  great  polity. 

The  possibility  of  pursuing  class  interests  in 
such  a  fashion  as  to  be  injurious  to  the  nation 
ought  to  be  taken  into  account,  for  it  may  fre- 
quently occur  in  actual  life.  Class  interest,  like 
individual  interest,  may  fail  to  promote  the 
common  good.  The  question  whether  any  body 
of  men  are  pursuing  their  interests  in  a  fashion 
which  is  injurious  to  the  community  as  a  whole, 
cannot  be  easily  decided.    In  the  early  years  of 

208 


CLASS  AND  NATIONAL  INTERESTS 

the  nineteenth  century  educated  opinion  was 
unanimous  in  the  belief  that  associations  for 
improving  a  standard  of  comfort  for  the  labour- 
ers by  securing  an  advance  of  wages  were  inju- 
rious to  the  community  as  a  whole,  and  that  the 
injury  was  sure  to  react  severely  on  the  position 
of  those  who  relied  on  such  mistaken  means. 
Dr.  Chalmers  repeated  the  typical  opinion  of 
the  religious  and  charitable  men  of  his  day,  and 
legislators  endeavoured,  with  imperfect  success, 
to  stamp  out  such  combinations  altogether.  In 
England  in  1906,  public  opinion  had  so  entirely 
changed,  and  there  was  such  a  general  consensus 
in  the  belief  that  trades  unions  were  wholesome 
elements  in  the  organisation  of  industry,  and 
especially  beneficial  to  their  members,  that  they 
were  put  in  a  position  of  privilege  by  the  Trade 
Disputes  Act.  But  more  recent  experience  has 
raised  the  question  afresh  as  to  whether  their  ob- 
jects, and  the  manner  in  which  they  pursue  them, 
are  in  real  accord  with  the  good  of  the  community 
as  a  whole.  This  case  at  least  illustrates  the  pos- 
sibility that  one  section  of  the  community  may 
conceive  of  their  own  good,  and  may  pursue  it,  in 
such  a  fashion  as  to  be  injurious  to  the  commu- 
nity in  the  long  run. 

There  is  another  point  on  which  the  opponents 
of  combination  for  trade  purposes,  in  the  begin- 

209 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

ning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  laid  stress.  There 
may  be  a  conflict  not  only  between  a  class  and  the 
community,  but  between  the  interest  of  the  class, 
on  the  whole  and  in  the  long  run,  and  that  of  the 
individuals  who  compose  it.  There  is  an  impor- 
tance in  providing  conditions  that  are  favourable 
to  the  development  of  the  individual,  and  to  his 
enjoying  the  fullest  life  possible.  Individualism 
may  be  so  pursued  as  to  promote  anarchy;  but  on 
the  other  hand  the  interests  of  a  class  or  the  com- 
munity may  be  treated  as  paramount,  so  that  no 
adequate  scope  is  left  for  individual  self-develop- 
ment. Where  personal  interest  conflicts  with  the 
interests  of  the  class,  and  a  man  likes  to  sacrifice 
his  individual  interest  voluntarily,  his  conduct  is 
public-spirited  and  admirable;  but  if  the  sacrifice 
is  demanded  from  him  against  his  own  judgment 
and  enforced  by  external  pressure,  there  is  a  dan- 
ger of  the  establishment  of  a  new  tyranny.  When 
the  principle  of  association  involves  a  lifelong 
agreement  it  leaves  no  room  for  a  change  of  mind 
under  changed  circumstances,  and  it  needs  to  be 
corrected  by  some  guarantee  for  personal  liberty. 
The  freedom  of  the  trade  unionist  in  regard  to 
the  political  action  of  the  association  to  which  he 
belongs  has  been  a  burning  question  in  recent 
years. 


210 


CLASS  AND  NATIONAL  INTERESTS    ' 

III.    NATIONAL   INTERESTS 

It  is  becoming  increasingly  difficult  to  cherish 
the  hope  that  personal  interests  and  class  interests 
will  be  reconciled  by  associations,  and  it  seems 
still  more  improbable  that  national  interests  will 
freely  co-operate  for  the  good  of  the  world  as  a 
whole.  Undoubtedly  war  is  the  greatest  evil  from 
which  human  society  at  present  suffers:  not  only 
is  there  the  horrible  destruction  of  human  life 
which  it  involves,  but  the  waste  of  resources  and 
the  widespread  poverty  which  follow  in  its  train. 
Politicians  fear  that  the  rivalry  in  armaments 
must  sooner  or  later  result  in  the  bankruptcy  of 
one  or  more  of  the  great  nations  of  the  world;  and 
attempts  have  been  made  to  show  that  each 
would  gain  in  material  prosperity  by  entering  into 
an  agreement  to  refrain  from  war  in  the  future. 
The  argument  obtains  more  force  when  it  is  re- 
membered that  a  community  consists  of  many 
individuals;  it  is  plausible  to  say  that  for  the 
country  to  go  to  war  is  not  in  the  interests  of 
private  individuals,  unless  in  the  possible  case 
of  army  officers  or  army  contractors;  and  hence  it 
is  argued  that  if  the  aggregate  voice  of  the  mass 
of  the  people  could  make  itself  effectively  heard, 
wars  would  never  break  out.    But  there  is  little 
evidence  in  support  of  this  contention;  the  repub- 

211 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

lican  States-General  were  not  less  militant  in  the 
seventeenth  century  than  the  British  monarchy. 
A  democracy  may  be  very  ready  to  take  offence 
on  slight  provocation,  and  a  democracy  is  apt  to 
resent  being  bound  by  old  agreements  in  which 
the  present  generation  have  no  voice.  During  the 
hundred  years'  peace  between  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States  it  is  difficult  to  see  that  the 
thorough-going  democracy  has  been  more  careful 
than  the  monarchy  to  act  as  a  good  neighbour 
and  to  avoid  occasions  of  irritation. 

Mr.  Norman  Angell  and  his  followers  have 
attempted  to  prove  that  it  can  never  be  in  the 
interest  of  any  nation  to  go  to  war,  and  that  it 
would  therefore  be  to  the  interest  of  each  coun- 
try to  refrain  from  putting  forth  its  full  strength 
in  anticipation  of  war,  and  to  trust  instead  to 
agreement  between  nations.  Apart  from  the  diffi- 
culty of  framing  an  agreement  that  should  con- 
tinue to  be  applicable,  and  binding  in  the  chang- 
ing conditions  of  national  life,  there  can  be  no 
confidence  that  an  agreement,  which  rests  on 
interests,  will  not  be  broken  whenever  it  becomes 
the  interest  of  any  of  the  parties  concerned  to 
throw  over  the  others.  In  the  Middle  Ages  the 
Church  endeavoured  to  play  the  part  of  an  inter- 
national authority  which  could  back  up  its  deci- 

212 


CLASS   AND  NATIONAL  INTERESTS 

sions  by  spiritual  censures;  but  there  seems  little 
reason  to  hope  that  an  international  agreement 
would  be  permanent  when  there  was  no  effective 
means  of  immediately  enforcing  it.  So  long  as 
national  ambition  exists,  and  nations  are  pre- 
pared to  push  their  own  interests  unscrupulously, 
it  would  be  reckless  for  any  country  to  allow  its 
very  existence  to  become  dependent  on  the  com- 
placency of  its  neighbours. 

While  attempts  to  avoid  the  horrors  of  war  by 
arbitration  and  agreement  are  to  be  eagerly  wel- 
comed we  make  a  mistake  if  we  regard  them  as 
more  than  temporary  expedients.  They  do  not 
in  themselves  effect  any  permanent  cure,  because 
they  do  not  get  rid  of  the  rivalries  which  bring 
about  international  quarrels.  Warfare  is  only  one 
of  the  forms  in  which  national  jealousies  express 
themselves;  national  ambition  and  the  greed  of 
private  persons  within  the  nation  have  shown 
themselves  again  and  again  in  deliberate  attempts 
to  exploit  other  countries  and  to  enforce  them  to 
remain  economic  dependents  and  thus  to  be  in 
danger  of  political  subordination.  Jealousy  of  Eng- 
lish commercial  greatness  was  one  of  the  causes 
of  the  Napoleonic  Wars;  "commerce,  though  it 
"  was  truly  one  of  the  greatest  earthly  blessings 
which  God  bestows,  and  is  even  the  chief  instru- 
ment which  He  employs  to  bind  the  nations  of 

213 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

"the  earth  together,  has  nevertheless,  it  must  be 
"owned,  a  tendency  in  itself  to  produce  this  insa- 
"tiable  appetite  of  accumulation,  and  we  cannot 
"be  ignorant  that  other  nations  reproach  us  per- 
"petually  with  what  they  call  the  unfair  and  un- 
"  reasonable  extension  of  our  commerce.  Nor  do 
"they  scruple  to  tell  us  that  the  lust  of  commerce 
"is  as  great  an  enemy  to  the  peace  of  the  world  as 
"the  lust  of  empire."  ^  A  generation  later,  when 
Great  Britain  had  been  enormously  successful  in 
developing  her  manufactures,  there  were  English- 
men who  hoped  that  her  industrial  supremacy 
would  enable  her  to  dominate  the  markets  of  the 
world  and  to  keep  less  progressive  countries  in  a 
condition  of  economic  dependence.^  A  free  trade 
policy  was  successfully  advocated  as  a  means  of 
attaining  this  power  of  dominating  the  world 
economically.  Had  the  countries  of  the  world 
been  willing  to  sacrifice  themselves  an  era  of  uni- 
versal peace  might  have  ensued,  but  those  who 
anticipated  its  immediate  advent  did  not  foresee 
that  great  communities  would  be  unwilling  to 
sacrifice  their  own  material  development.  The  sci- 
entific advance  of  Germany  and  her  skill  in  or- 
ganisation has  enabled  her  to  become  the  suc- 
cessful rival  of  Great  Britain  industrially  and  to 

1  W.  Carey,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  Sermon  (preached  before  the  House 
of  Commons,  1809),  p.  13. 

2  Cunningham,  Case  against  Free  Trade  (2d  edition),  p.  141. 

214 


CLASS  AND  NATIONAL  INTERESTS 

make  a  bid  for  economic  dominance  on  which 
world-power  may  be  successfully  based.  With 
changing  degrees  of  development,  as  well  as 
through  the  exhaustion  of  natural  resources,  the 
enonomic  relations  of  different  countries  are  con- 
stantly changing,  their  interests  do  not  remain  the 
same;  but  the  experience  of  the  past  gives  little 
ground  for  the  assumption  of  doctrinaires  that  con- 
sciousness of  economic  dependence  is  a  condition 
which  necessarily  favours  international  friendship. 

Neither  welfare  within  the  nation  nor  universal 
peace  throughout  the  world  can  be  securely  based 
on  the  play  of  class  interests  and  national  inter- 
ests; concentration  on  material  prosperity  will 
never  cure  the  evil  that  arises  from  overvaluing 
the  material  side  of  life.  No  readjustment  of 
political  maxims  within  the  nation,  and  no  crea- 
tion of  new  machinery  throughout  the  civilised 
world,  will  itself  do  away  with  jealousy  and  greed. 
The  consideration  of  interests  can  never  be  a  sub- 
stitute for  a  sense  of  national  duty  and  of  per- 
sonal duty;  these  deal  directly  with  the  cause  of 
the  evil  and  may  thus  effect  a  permanent  cure. 
Both  in  the  world  at  large,  and  in  different  coun- 
tries where  the  sense  of  the  duty  of  the  commun- 
ity and  of  duties  to  the  community  is  imperfectly 
understood,  there  is  a  danger  that  powerful  inter- 

215 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

ests  will  encroach  on  individual  liberty,  and  there 
is  little  hope  of  progress  in  society.  We  cannot 
rely  on  the  material  prosperity  of  the  community 
as  a  whole,  still  less  on  that  of  any  section  of  the 
community  as  a  proof  that  life  is  healthy.  It  is 
indeed  difficult  to  find  a  test  by  which  to  judge  of 
the  good  and  bad  in  the  national  life  of  progres- 
sive communities.  No  formula,  either  economic 
or  moral,  lies  ready  to  hand  and  enables  us  to  give 
a  definite  judgment;  there  may  be  great  differ- 
ences of  opinion  in  the  interpretation  of  righteous- 
ness and  justice  at  any  given  moment,  and  even  if 
the  principle  be  clear,  the  difficulty  of  forecasting 
results  or  interpreting  motives  makes  it  difficult 
of  application.  The  most  trustworthy  guide  as  to 
the  good  or  evil  of  the  life  of  a  community  is 
afforded  by  the  personal  life  and  character  of  the 
citizens  who  compose  it.  If  they  have  a  strong 
sense  of  duty  and  a  patriotic  enthusiasm  there  is 
not  likely  to  be  much  amiss  with  the  community. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  political  character  and 
good  citizenship  of  the  individuals  is  most  obvi- 
ously displayed  when  it  is  seen  on  a  large  scale  in 
the  conduct  and  character  of  the  community 
which  they  constitute  at  the  time. 

A  body  of  self-interested  individuals  cannot 
help  forming  a  sordid  polity;  they  are  brought  to- 
gether by  a  consciousness  of  their  own  interests, 

216 


CLASS   AND   NATIONAL   INTERESTS 

and  the  main  motive  of  each  is  apt  to  be,  to  see 
that  he  gets  his  share  out  of  the  common  benefit. 
This  is  the  attitude  of  mind  which  leads  to  cor- 
ruption on  the  part  of  officials  and  which  induces 
powerful  sections  of  the  community  to  feel  justi- 
fied in  condoning  unfairness  on  the  part  of  ad- 
ministrators or  legislators.  Those  who  are  advo- 
cating real  improvements  may  be  tainted  by  this 
spirit.  They  may  recognise  that  the  public  im- 
provements cannot  take  place  except  at  individ- 
ual loss;  they  are  ready  to  insist  with  Mr.  Birrell, 
that  minorities  must  suffer,  but  they  will  be  at 
pains  to  see  that  someone  else  does  the  suffering, 
and  that  they  are  not  called  upon  to  sacrifice 
themselves. 

A  polity  composed  of  individuals,  associated 
for  their  own  interests,  cannot  hope  to  have  much 
influence  for  good  on  the  world;  it  will  be  content 
to  be  self-centred  and  to  live  its  own  life  in  splen- 
did isolation;  it  will  have  no  sense  of  duty  to  its 
neighbours  except  that  of  setting  them  an  exam- 
ple, and  no  care  for  humanity  at  large.  Such  a 
polity  is  not  unlikely  to  measure  itself  or  others 
by  a  sordid  standard,  and  to  be  guilty  of  dishon- 
ourable conduct.  Where  considerations  of  inter- 
est are  strongly  felt  and  opportunities  are  favour- 
able, the  promises  embodied  in  solemn  treaties 
are  likely  to  be  worthless,  as  we  have  seen  in  the 

217 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

annexation  of  Bosnia  by  Austria,  and  in  the  Ger- 
man invasion  of  Belgium.  For  the  welfare  of  the 
world  it  is  not  only  important  that  a  nation 
should  be  as  good  as  its  word,  but  that  friend- 
ship between  nations  should  be  a  reality,  and  that 
a  national  obligation  to  sacrifice  something  for  a 
friend  should  be  admitted.  The  main  obstacle  to 
the  peace  of  the  world  at  the  present  day  is  due 
to  the  manner  in  which  national  interests  are  al- 
lowed to  obscure  the  sense  of  national  honour. 
A  political  system  which  rests  on  a  mere  consider- 
ation of  interests  fails  to  offer  scope  for  individual 
development  or  to  hold  out  hope  of  nobler  national 
life. 


VIII 

CHRISTIAN  DUTY  IN  A  DEMOCRACY 
I.   MODERN   PERPLEXITIES 

Our  survey  has  shown  that  there  is  little  hope 
that  religion  can  be  effectively  brought  to  bear  on 
political  life  by  external  authority.  The  attempt 
to  do  so  was  one  great  occasion  of  the  revolt 
against  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  the  pretence  to 
mould  political  life  on  a  scriptural  model  was 
never  acceptable  to  Englishmen  when  it  was 
attempted  by  Presbyterians.  From  the  time  of 
Locke  onwards  there  has  been  an  increasing  tend- 
ency to  regard  secular  welfare  and  civil  right  as 
the  matters  with  which  the  State  has  to  deal; 
and  to  disclaim  any  public  duty,  not  indeed  of 
acknowledging  religion,  but  of  maintaining  and 
fostering  it.  A  man's  belief  is  generally  regarded 
as  his  private  concern  with  which  no  public  body 
should  interfere.  The  Anglo-Saxon  peoples  are 
inclined  to  boast  of  the  religious  toleration  which 
exists  among  them;  and  this  may  be  interpreted 
as  meaning  that  the  government,  as  a  govern- 
ment, is  for  the  most  part,  indifferent  to  religion. 
The  provision  of  chaplains  for  the  Army  and 

219 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

Navy  and  of  chaplains  in  workhouses  is  quite 
exceptional,  and  hardly  affects  the  truth  of  the 
general  statement.  The  public,  on  the  whole, 
think  that  the  introduction  of  religious  ques- 
tions into  political  life  is  a  disturbing  element 
which  is  at  once  irrelevant  and  confusing,  and 
that  civil  legislation  and  administration  go  on 
more  smoothly  when  this  cause  of  possible  fric- 
tion is  eliminated  altogether. 

Still,  the  effort  to  carry  on  the  government  of 
nations  and  the  organisation  of  society  on  lines 
in  which  religion  is  ignored,  while  successful  up 
to  a  certain  point,  has  not  been  altogether  satis- 
factory. K  we  fall  back,  like  the  seventeenth- 
century  Quakers,  on  piu'ely  mundane  considera- 
tions for  civic  affairs,  we  are  compelled  to  look 
for  guidance  either  to  human  sentiments  or  to 
human  interests;  but  neither  can  be  trusted  abso- 
lutely and  completely.  Humanitarianism  has 
done  much;  but  the  field  where  coercion  is  appli- 
cable is  limited,  and  it  does  not  give  much  hope 
of  progress  for  the  future.  "While  the  appeal  to 
interests  is  always  powerful,  there  is  no  security 
that  there  will  be  any  stability  in  the  institutions 
which  rest  upon  it.  In  a  modern  democratic 
community  there  are  facilities  for  securing  the 
welfare  of  the  community  such  as  never  existed 

220 


CHRISTIAN  DUTY   IN   A  DEMOCRACY 

before.  With  popular  representation  there  is  a 
possibility  for  obtaining  a  full  knowledge  of  pub- 
lie  requirements,  and  throughout  Great  Britain 
there  is  widespread  political  interest.  This  is 
largely  due  to  the  manner  in  which  departmental 
administration  is  ramified,  till  government  inter- 
ference touches  such  masses  of  people  in  the 
conduct  of  their  affairs  and  the  conditions  of 
their  life.  Yet  there  is  a  wide-spread  feeling  of 
imrest,  and  complaint  is  being  constantly  made 
of  the  whole  social  fabric.  There  are  many  social- 
ists who  insist  that  the  edifice  must  be  re-built 
from  the  foundation,  and  anarchists  who  desire 
that  the  foundations  should  be  re-laid,  in  order 
that  we  may  see  more  clearly  where  to  begin  to 
build.  But  the  new  foundation  is  not  far  to  seek; 
though  there  may  be  an  intellectual  difficulty  in 
showing  how  the  various  elements  may  be  com- 
bined, there  is  no  practical  difficulty  in  proceed- 
ing with  the  work.  The  one  great  need  is  the 
cultivation  of  a  personal  sense  of  duty,  so  that 
each  citizen  shall  live  his  own  life  in  the  fashion 
in  which  it  may  contribute  most  to  the  service 
of  his  country,  and  through  his  country  to  the 
good  of  the  world.  The  democratic  citizen  has  a 
voice  in  directing  the  life  of  the  country,  and  he 
also  leads  a  life  of  his  own.  In  so  far  as  his  sense 
of  duty  comes  to  bear  in  either  field  of  action,  he 

221 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

is  able  to  bring  the  force  of  sentiment  and  the 
force  of  interest  into  co-operation.  The  free  man 
is  not  necessarily  carried  away  by  either  one  or 
the  other;  but  he  is  able,  as  opportunity  is  afford- 
ed him,  to  bring  both  into  play. 

Christianity  had  much  to  do  with  the  awaken- 
ing of  public  spirit  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and 
it  has  a  unique  power  for  maintaining  and  fos- 
tering the  sense  of  pubHc  duty  to-day.  Where 
authority  ends  influence  begins;  and  Christianity 
will  work  along  the  lines  of  least  resistance  if  it 
appeals,  not  to  society  as  a  whole  or  to  men  in 
masses,  but  to  individuals  personally.  The  ex- 
perience of  centuries  in  the  past,  and  of  earnest 
Christians  in  the  present  day,  furnishes  over- 
whelming testimony  to  show  that  an  influence 
may  be  brought  to  bear  on  personal  habits  of 
thought,  which  will  affect  all  a  man's  activities 
both  in  his  private  relations  and  in  his  public 
duties.  This  influence  is  spiritual,  both  because 
of  the  insensible  manner  in  which  it  operates, 
and  of  the  various  directions  in  which  its  effects 
may  be  shown.  There  is  no  element  of  compul- 
sion about  it,  as  it  is  not  enforced  either  by  civil 
authority  or  ecclesiastical  censures;  it  appeals  di- 
rectly to  the  personal  will  of  the  individual  man 
or  woman,  and  by  means  of  an  attractive  force; 
the  influence  from  each  of  these  personal  centres 

222 


CHRISTIAN  DUTY  IN  A  DEMOCRACY 

may  ramify  in  so  many  directions  as  to  permeate 
and  gradually  to  transform  the  whole  of  society 
politically  and  economically.  This  is  the  method 
of  working  which  seems  to  be  in  closest  accord 
with  our  Lord's  instructions  in  regard  to  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  He  speaks  of  it  as  planted 
within;  and  illustrates  its  effect  on  society  by 
the  salt  which  can  prevent  corruption  and  the 
leaven  which  may  work  through  the  whole  lump. 
There  was  with  Him  no  suggestion  of  enforcing 
a  code  on  a  newly  constituted  society,  but  of 
planting  a  spiritual  power  which  might  trans- 
form the  kingdoms  of  the  world. 

The  Christian  man,  who  desires  to  do  his  politi- 
cal and  social  duties,  may  well  be  oppressed  with 
a  sense  of  the  stupendous  task  that  lies  before 
him,  and  confused  as  to  the  manner  in  which  he 
can  best  set  to  work.  The  world  is  so  evil,  the 
mechanism  of  modern  society  is  so  complex  and 
remorseless,  that  there  is  a  temptation  to  shirk 
the  responsibilities  altogether,  and  to  plead  that 
if  he  tries,  he  may  do  more  harm  than  good.  But 
this  faithless  habit  of  mind  is  inexcusable,  and  our 
Lord  warns  us  against  it  again  and  again.  The 
servant  who,  out  of  a  false  humility,  or  because 
he  was  remiss,  hid  his  talent  in  the  napkin  was 
severely  punished :  we  are  bound  as  Christians  to 
make  the  most  of  our  opportunities  whatever  they 

223 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

may  be.  The  warning  is  constantly  reiterated, 
but  it  is  put  most  strikingly  in  the  parable  of  the 
sheep  and  the  goats,  where  readiness  to  use  oppor- 
tunities of  service  is  so  wonderfully  commended, 
and  the  wickedness  of  those  who  neglect  them  is 
condemned. 

There  are  two  fundamental  principles  which 
cover  Christian  duty  in  all  the  relations  of  life. 
The  sense  of  his  responsibility  to  God  for  the 
use  of  his  time,  and  of  his  responsibility  as  a 
trustee  for  the  use  of  the  possessions  he  holds, 
should  control  the  Christian  in  his  manner  of 
using  them;  while  the  recognition  of  these  re- 
sponsibilities to  God  helps  to  throw  hght  on  the 
duties  he  owes  to  his  fellowmen.  From  the  re- 
sponsibilities in  regard  to  time  there  follow  the 
duties  of  work,  and  of  diligence  while  at  work. 
This  is  a  duty  which  is  incumbent  on  all  Chris- 
tians whatever  their  circumstances  may  be. 
Some  are  compelled  by  the  stress  of  need  and 
desire  of  independence  to  work  at  a  calling  which 
brings  them  a  reward;  while  those  who  enjoy  an 
independence  are  free  to  choose  the  work  which 
they  think  they  can  do  best;  but  on  all  there  is 
the  same  duty  of  diligence;  "Whatever  thy  hand 
findeth  to  do,  do  it  with  thy  might."  The 
sense  of  this  responsibility  will  foster  habits  of 

224 


CHRISTIAN  DUTY  IN  A  DEMOCRACY 

self-discipline.  A  warning  is  needed  against 
frittering  time  away  in  pastimes  which  are  not 
really  recreative,  and  which  do  not  confer  pleas- 
ure on  others,  so  that  they  have  no  beneficial 
result  on  any  human  being. 

The  other  principle,  of  responsibility  for  pos- 
sessions and  the  sense  of  trusteeship  in  using 
them,  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  as  a  help  to  avoid 
recklessness  and  waste,  as  well  as  greed  and  op- 
pression. No  man  has  a  right  to  gamble,  and 
run  the  risk  of  losing  the  wealth  which  has  been 
lent  him  for  a  time;  and  no  man  has  a  right  to 
use  the  power  which  wealth  gives  so  as  to  oppress 
his  fellowmen.  These  are  the  principles  of  self- 
discipline  which  a  Christian  is  bound  to  keep 
before  him;  they  are  far  more  fruitful  than  the 
prudential  maxims  in  the  Proverbs.  The  Chris- 
tian character  is  modelled  on  the  belief  that  man 
is  called  upon,  not  merely  to  obey  a  Divine  Code 
imposed  at  Sinai,  but  to  co-operate,  in  each  new 
age,  for  the  regeneration  of  mankind.  A  few 
words  may  serve  to  point  out  some  of  the  ways 
in  which  this  sense  of  responsibility  can  operate, 
and  to  show  how  spiritual  influence,  working  in 
the  individual  heart,  may  be  brought  to  bear  on 
national  life  in  its  political  and  economic  aspects. 


225 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

II.    DUTIES   AS   A    CITIZEN 

There  is  a  very  strong  temptation  to  many  men 
at  the  present  day  to  refrain  from  taking  any  part 
in  poKtical  activity.  The  reasons  that  are  alleged 
by  those  who  desire  to  excuse  themselves  are 
plausible:  they  see  the  futility  of  much  political 
discussion,  and  are  tired  of  the  mutual  recrimi- 
nations of  political  parties.  They  see  no  great 
difference  of  principle  between  one  party  and  the 
other,  and  they  are  ready  to  suspect  that  the 
members  of  each  are  simply  playing  for  their  own 
ends,  and  not  specially  concerned  for  the  good 
of  the  country.  Personally,  I  believe  that  these 
charges  are  grossly  exaggerated,  and  that,  on  the 
whole,  the  party  leaders  have  thrown  themselves 
into  political  life,  often  at  considerable  personal 
sacrifice,  because  they  were  anxious  to  help  in 
carrying  out  measures  which  they  believe  would 
tend  to  the  good  of  the  country  materially  and 
morally.  That  there  may  be  decided  differences 
of  opinion  as  to  the  method  which  it  is  most  wise 
to  adopt,  having  regard  not  only  to  the  present 
but  to  the  probabilities  of  the  future,  is  true 
enough.  That  there  may  be  differences,  too,  as 
to  the  relative  importance  of  one  particular  step 
or  another  is  also  true.  That  a  man's  opinions  on 
these  points  are  likely  to  be  affected  by  his  special 

226 


CHRISTIAN   DUTY  IN  A   DEMOCRACY 

circumstances  and  his  forecast  of  his  personal 
interest  and  of  that  of  men  who  are  situated  as 
he  is,  is  undoubted;  but  this  is  no  sufficient 
ground  for  cynically  asserting  that  the  opinion 
is  dishonest,  though  it  is  a  reason  for  criticising 
any  policy  carefully. 

With  all  its  defects,  party  government  is  the 
method  by  which  government  is  likely  to  be  car- 
ried on  in  democratic  communities.  Its  defects 
are  to  a  large  extent  the  price  which  must  be  paid 
for  the  liberty  which  democratic  citizens  enjoy. 
"When  power  is  widely  diffused,  there  must  be 
uncertainty  about  the  formation  of  decided  pub- 
lic opinion,  and  difficulty  in  shaping  measures  by 
which  that  public  opinion  is  brought  into  effect. 
Party  government  is  the  best  instrument  which 
has  yet  been  devised  for  carrying  on  the  affairs  of 
State  among  a  free  people;  and  it  is  by  finding  out 
the  party  with  which  he  most  strongly  sympa- 
thises, and  with  which  he  can  work  most  cordially, 
that  any  citizen  may  bring  his  individual  opinion 
to  bear  most  effectively  on  the  course  of  national 
affairs.  The  man  who  tries  to  be  independent  of 
party  condemns  himself  to  mere  futility;  or,  at 
the  best,  he  becomes  an  opportunist  who  tries  to 
see  what  help  he  can  get,  from  each  party  in  turn, 
in  advancing  the  cause  in  which  he  is  interested. 
This  is  not  a  dignified  attitude  to  take;  and  it 

227 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

only  attracts  the  men  whose  judgment  is  so 
one-sided  that  they  are  devoted  to  one  particu- 
lar element  exclusively,  and  are  indifferent  to 
the  good  government  of  the  country  in  all  other 
respects. 

All  the  action  taken  by  the  State  is  necessarily 
political;  it  is  concerned  with  the  defence  of  the 
realm  from  without,  the  administration  of  jus- 
tice, and  the  maintenance  of  good  order  within. 
The  manner  in  which  the  duties  of  the  State  are 
discharged  is  of  the  highest  importance,  not  only 
for  the  present  generation  but  for  posterity;  the 
mistakes  of  one  generation  are  visited  on  their 
children  and  children's  children.  The  man  who 
is  so  careless  that  he  excuses  himself  from  doing 
his  best  to  understand  political  questions,  and  to 
give  an  intelligent  opinion  upon  them,  is  un- 
worthy of  the  privileges  of  citizenship,  and  can- 
not escape  his  share  of  blame  for  any  mischief 
that  he  might  have  helped  to  prevent,  if  he  had 
been  unselfish  enough  to  take  trouble  in  the 
matter. 

The  political  influence  of  a  nation  offers  the 
means  by  which  an  individual  may  most  effec- 
tively do  something  for  the  benefit  of  humanity 
at  large.  Some  members  of  the  Society  of  Friends 
had  felt  the  horror  of  slavery  from  the  time  of 

228 


CHRISTIAN  DUTY  IN  A  DEMOCRACY 

George  Fox,  who  protested  against  it;  ^  but  the  in- 
stitution, and  the  commerce  which  arose  in  con- 
nection with  it,  continued  to  grow;  and  even  the 
protest  of  Woohnan  and  Lay  had  little  effect  out- 
side the  circle  of  the  Society  of  Friends.  It  was 
only  when  Clarkson  and  Wilberforce  made  it  a 
political  question,  by  bringing  it  before  the  British 
Parliament,  that  any  real  hope  was  awakened  of 
removing  this  evil  from  civilised  society.  When 
it  once  became  a  political  question  the  progress 
was  rapid  in  regulating  and  abolishing  the  trade, 
and  subsequently  in  freeing  the  slaves;  and  when 
a  lead  was  given  by  one  country,  others  were  en- 
couraged to  follow  on  the  same  line.  Since  we  see 
the  enormous  power  which  the  State  possesses  for 
putting  down  evil,  and  the  misery  which  may  en- 
sue from  ill-judged  action  on  the  part  of  the  State, 
it  is  a  matter  of  the  deepest  regret  that  so  many 
men  should  disparage  political  activity,  and  should 
put  forward  such  flimsy  excuses  for  neglecting  to 
do  their  best  in  discharging  the  responsibilities 
of  citizenship. 

The  duties  of  political  communities  he  in  the 
mundane  sphere,  and  the  action  of  a  Christian 
citizen  does  not  necessarily  differ  from  that  of  a 

*  Whittier's  Appreciation,  prefixed  to  the  Journal  of  John  Wool- 
man,  p.  8. 

229 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

man  of  any  other  religion,  or  of  none.  The  doing 
of  justice  is  a  thing  in  which  all  good  men  of  any 
religion  will  readily  join;  the  forecasting  of  what 
is  wise  in  the  interests  of  the  community,  is  an 
intellectual  effort,  and  differences  of  opinion  as  to 
what  is  expedient  need  have  no  direct  connec- 
tion with  differences  of  religious  belief.  Chris- 
tianity can,  however,  supply  a  motive  force  which 
will  lead  a  man  to  see  that  he  is  not  justified  in 
attempting  to  live  for  himself  alone,  but  is  bound 
to  do  his  best  for  other  men  as  well,  and  to  make 
use  of  his  privileges  on  their  behalf.  Christianity 
may  do  little  to  help  us  to  forecast  the  precise 
nature  of  what  is  best  for  the  community  at  any 
place  or  time;  but  it  does  afford  an  incentive  for 
trying  to  see  our  duty  and  for  persisting  in  doing 
it.  It  is  the  privilege  of  a  citizen  to  take  part  in 
doing  the  duties  of  the  community,  in  advancing 
the  welfare  within,  and  exercising  a  wholesome 
influence  on  the  world  without.  Administrators 
and  government  officials  of  every  sort  may  be 
conscientious,  or  they  may  be  careless  in  discharg- 
ing the  public  functions  with  which  they  are  en- 
trusted; and  Christianity  enjoins  the  conscientious 
doing  of  every  duty.  "Whatever  thy  hand  finds 
"to  do,  do  it  with  thy  might."  Public-spirited 
citizens  will  seek  to  do  their  part  in  support- 
ing the  action  of  civil  authority,  and  in  helping  to 

230 


CHRISTIAN  DUTY  IN  A  DEMOCRACY 

bring  good  laws  into  effective  operation.  They 
may  also  feel  called  upon  to  supplement  the  activ- 
ities of  the  State  by  voluntary  action  and  to  try 
to  engage  in  duties,  such  as  that  of  fostering  reli- 
gion, which  they  believe  to  be  incumbent  on  the 
community,  but  which  the  community  does  not 
attempt  to  discharge  or  discharges  inadequately. 

The  chief  duty  of  the  citizen  to  the  community 
is  that  of  civil  obedience,  and  it  seems  unnecessary 
to  add  to  what  has  been  said  on  this  point  above; 
but  the  citizen  also  owes  duties  to  the  State  in 
respect  of  his  time  and  of  his  possessions. 

A  question  has  been  much  discussed  in  recent 
years  as  to  the  personal  duty  of  the  citizen  to  fit 
himself  for  the  defence  of  his  country.  This  duty 
has  been  recognised  in  most  continental  countries, 
where  the  danger  of  military  invasion  is  very 
great;  and  the  public  generally  acquiesce  in  the 
sacrifice  of  time,  and  the  acceptance  of  onerous 
and  costly  service  which  private  citizens  may  be 
suddenly  called  upon  to  perform ;  the  personal 
duty  is  enforced  by  conscription.  There  is  a  readi- 
ness on  the  part  of  many  British  citizens  in  the 
colonies  to  fall  in  with  this  conception  of  the  per- 
sonal duty  of  citizenship.  The  fact  that  this  duty 
has  not  been  generally  recognised  in  England  has 
led,  within  the  last  few  months,  to  a  regrettable 
failure  to  fulfil  a  national  obligation.    English 

231 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

I  honour  was  involved  in  the  maintenance  of  the 
integrity  of  Belgium;  but  when  a  blow  was  sud- 
denly struck  at  the  independence  of  that  little 
nation,  it  was  impossible  for  England  to  take  as 
prompt  measures  as  she  would  have  desired  to 
strengthen  Belgium  against  invasion.  The  provi- 
sion which  had  to  be  made  for  defending  the 
shores  of  England  from  a  German  raid  rendered 
it  impossible  to  act  as  promptly,  and  on  as  large  a 
scale  as  would  have  been  desirable,  in  the  sending 
out  of  an  expeditionary  force.  It  is  impossible 
for  an  Englishman  not  to  feel  that,  if  the  duty  of 
the  citizen  to  fit  himself  for  the  defence  of  his 
country  had  been  more  generally  recognised, 
England  might  have  been  able  to  do  more  to 
save  Belgium  from  the  misery  of  being  overrun 
by  an  enemy. 

Duty  to  the  community  should  also  be  borne  in 
mind  by  men  of  means  in  deciding  as  to  the  invest- 
ment of  their  property.  In  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, as  we  have  seen,  this  question  hardly  arose. 
The  capitalist  was  almost  certain  to  invest  his 
money  in  some  fashion  which  would  lead  to  pro- 
moting public  interests  by  the  development  of 
home  resources,  and  the  promotion  of  inter- 
course with  other  countries.  At  the  same  time  it 
was  strongly  felt,  even  then,  that  some  employ- 

232 


CHRISTIAN   DUTY  IN   A  DEMOCRACY 

ments  of  capital  were  more  beneficial  to  the  com- 
munity than  others,  and  that  it  was  desirable  to 
give  encouragement  at  national  expense  to  those 
who  used  their  wealth  in  such  a  way  as  indirectly 
to  promote  a  great  public  interest,  like  the  main- 
tenance of  a  maritime  marine.  Since  the  time 
of  Adam  Smith  the  State  has  ceased  to  try  to 
direct  the  employment  of  capital;  but  with  the 
enormous  increase  of  wealth  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  there  is  need  to  take  the  question  into 
consideration,  and  not  to  assume  that  we  are 
justified  in  neglecting  it  altogether.  The  public- 
spirited  man  will  not  content  himself  with  seeing 
that  he  gets  the  largest  possible  return  for  his 
money,  but  will  consider  also  the  effect  upon  the 
good  of  the  community. 

It  is  generally  recognised  that  in  time  of  war 
the  floating  of  a  loan  on  behalf  of  either  belliger- 
ent would  be  inconsistent  with  the  spirit  of  neu- 
trality, and  that  lending  money  is  one  method 
of  increasing  the  resources  of  a  State.  The  good 
citizen  is  surely  called  upon  to  consider  whether 
he  is  justified  in  lending  money  to  a  foreign  gov- 
ernment, especially  if  there  is  reasonable  prob- 
ability that  that  foreign  government  is  likely  to 
become  a  hostile  government.  This  principle 
applies  less  directly  to  the  use  of  capital  for  de- 
veloping the  resources,  increasing  the  communi- 

233 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

cations,  or  otherwise  promoting  the  material 
wealth  of  a  country  that  is  a  possible  enemy. 
The  Englishman  might  surely  be  expected  to 
show  a  preference  in  his  investments  for  devel- 
oping the  resources  of  the  British  colonies,  rather 
than  for  benefiting  those  regions  with  which  he 
has  no  political  affinities.  There  is  also  much 
room  for  consideration  as  to  the  manner  in  which 
capital  is  employed  within  a  country.  Those 
who  can  offer  direct  employment  to  labour  are 
helping  to  relieve  the  wants  of  the  poor  in  the 
most  wholesome  fashion.  The  employment  of 
capital  in  agriculture  or  in  any  industry  is  sure 
to  be  a  public  benefit;  while  capital  engaged  in 
trading,  though  indirectly  involved  in  the  de- 
velopment of  national  activities,  does  not  affect 
the  market  for  labour  so  directly,  or  confer  an 
immediate  and  regular  benefit  upon  those  who 
live  by  wages.  The  investment  of  capital  in 
demoralising  places  of  amusement,  or  in  afford- 
ing facilities  for  dissipation,  may  be  exceedingly 
remunerative;  but  it  is  a  form  of  sordid  gain 
which  the  good  citizen  who  desires  to  keep  public 
interests  in  view,  will  be  likely  to  avoid. 

III.    DUTIES   OF   PRIVATE   LIFE 

The  Christian  man  is  called  upon  to  use  the  co- 
ercive power  of  the  State  to  put  down  the  evils  of 

234 


CHRISTIAN  DUTY  IN  A  DEMOCRACY 

society,  and  thus  to  keep  the  national  life  up  to 
as  high  a  level  as  possible;  but  he  has  also  duties 
to  do  of  his  own.  He  is  called  upon  to  aim  at 
being  better  than  his  surroundings  so  that  he 
may  help  to  transform  them;  but  he  finds  him- 
self in  a  highly  organised  society  where  he  has 
comparatively  little  freedom  for  personal  ac- 
tion, and  therefore  but  little  personal  responsi- 
bility. He  is  a  part  of  a  great  machine,  and  if 
he  neglects  the  running  of  that  machine,  he  is 
likely  to  be  crushed  himself,  and  to  bring  injury 
to  those  with  whom  he  is  related  by  the  ties  of 
business. 

This  holds  good  of  all  questions  in  regard  to  the 
relations  of  capital  and  labour,  where  the  remu- 
neration of  labour  depends  ultimately  on  the  sale 
of  the  product.  Impersonal  organisation  of  busi- 
ness may  be  beneficial  both  to  capital  and  to 
labour;  but  competition  is  so  keen  that  there  is 
little  room  for  the  capitalist  acting  personally, 
and  on  his  own  responsibility,  to  make  changes 
in  the  terms  of  employment;  there  is  therefore  no 
Christian  obligation  to  do  what  the  employer 
has  no  opportunity  of  doing,  though  he  may  be 
of  good  service  in  suggesting  remedial  legisla- 
tion. 

At  the  same  time  there  are  various  forms  of 
employment  which  are  not  concerned  with  sup- 

235 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

plying  a  market  with  finished  goods,  and  where 
competition  does  not  tie  the  hands  of  the  em- 
ployer. Domestic  service  is  an  obvious  case  in 
point,  where  the  rate  of  remuneration  and  the 
conditions  of  life  are  entirely  under  the  control  of 
the  employer  personally,  and  where  there  is  no 
excuse  for  ignoring  the  Christian  duty  of  caring 
for  the  comfort  and  welfare  of  dependents.  The 
days  have  gone  by  when  the  householder  was  jus- 
tified in  believing  that  the  inculcation  of  the  pru- 
dential virtues  of  diligence  and  thrift  was  his  sole 
duty  to  those  under  his  charge.  The  claim  for 
opportunities  to  live  a  fuller  life  must  be  met; 
there  is  a  different  standard  from  that  which  was 
formerly  in  vogue,  with  regard  to  the  conditions 
which  are  necessary  for  health.  The  Christian 
employer  of  such  labour  is  responsible  for  ruling 
his  house  so  that  the  dependents  shall  have  the 
opportunity  of  living  a  wholesome  human  and 
Christian  life. 

Even  in  regard  to  employment  where  work  is 
done  with  reference  to  a  market,  such  considera- 
tions may  be  taken  into  account  in  regard  to  the 
manner  in  which  the  business  is  conducted.  It 
is  right  to  remember  that  the  mechanism  of  so- 
ciety is  not  a  mere  mechanism,  and  it  is  a  Chris- 
tian duty  to  take  any  occasion  that  may  arise 
for  making  a  Christian  influence  felt.    Among 

236 


CHRISTIAN  DUTY  IN   A  DEMOCRACY 

the  merchants  of  the  seventeenth  century  there 
were  men  who  reahsed  that  their  contact  with 
foreign  countries,  for  purposes  of  business,  gave 
occasions  which  might  be  utihsed  for  Christian 
objects;  and  the  man  who  is  anxious  to  do  so 
will  find  that  the  contact  which  arises  in  the  way 
of  business  does  give  opportunities  for  exercis- 
ing a  humanising  and  Christianising  influence 
on  his  dependents.  It  seems  a  little  thing,  but 
it  is  important  for  the  master  to  bear  in  mind 
that  those  he  employs  are  human  beings,  and  to 
endeavour  to  preserve  the  courtesies  of  life,  and 
not  to  hurt  their  feelings  by  the  manner  in  which 
he  issues  orders  to  his  dependents  or  reproves 
blunders. 

So  much  of  the  work  of  modern  society  is  car- 
ried on  by  associations,  that  there  is  great  need  to 
consider  the  personal  responsibilities  of  an  indi- 
vidual with  regard  to  the  conduct  of  an  associa- 
tion in  which  he  has  a  part;  and  a  good  deal  is 
said  from  time  to  time  about  the  blame  which 
attaches  to  shareholders  in  industrial  or  commer- 
cial companies.  There  is  indeed  a  danger  that  the 
management  of  such  companies  may  be  carried 
on  more  mechanically,  and  with  stricter  attention 
to  economic  considerations,  than  would  be  the 
case  where  the  personal  influence  of  the  head  of 

237 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

the  firm  can  lubricate  the  running  of  the  whole 
machine. 

This  consideration  raises  a  question  which  was 
involved  in  the  mediaeval  objection  to  usury. 
Has  anyone  a  right  to  bargain  himself  out  of  re- 
sponsibilities for  the  manner  in  which  his  business 
is  conducted?  The  usurer,  in  the  mediaeval  sense 
of  the  term,  bargained  himself  out  of  the  risks  of 
business,  and  this  was  regarded  as  unfair  to  those 
who  were  actually  carrying  on  the  undertaking 
from  which  the  man  who  had  loaned  his  capital 
expected  to  gain.  The  debenture-holders  and 
bond-holders,  in  public  companies,  have  bargained 
themselves  out  of  any  share  in  the  control  of  the 
business,  and  therefore  out  of  any  responsibility 
for  what  is  done  in  conducting  it.  Should  a  scan- 
dal arise,  such  as  has  shocked  the  world  in  con- 
nection with  the  collection  of  rubber,  would  the 
debenture-holders  be  justified  in  regarding  them- 
selves as  free  from  all  blame  .^  With  regard  to 
large  associations,  such  as  railway  companies 
working  in  this  country,  it  is  clear  that  there  are 
opportunities  of  criticism  which  are  likely  to 
bring  any  legitimate  cause  of  complaint  to  light; 
and  that  real  evils  on  a  large  scale  can  be  more 
effectively  dealt  with  by  the  coercive  power  of  the 
State,  than  in  any  other  fashion.  The  shareholder 
has  also  the  opportunity,  by  subscription  to  benev- 

238 


CHRISTIAN  DUTY  IN  A  DEMOCRACY 

olent  societies  and  other  charities,  to  make  some 
provision  for  the  good  of  his  dependents  outside, 
and  not  to  confine  himself  to  the  strictly  business 
relations  which  exist  between  himself,  as  an  em- 
ployer, and  his  unknown  dependents.  Even  the 
conscience  of  the  most  scrupulous  railway  share- 
holder may  be  satisfied  by  taking  advantage  of 
these  opportunities,  and  he  may  feel  that  he  is  at 
once  conferring  a  benefit  on  the  public  by  the  use 
made  of  his  capital,  and  endeavouring  to  secure 
that  the  welfare  of  the  employees  as  human  beings 
shall  not  be  forgotten. 

When  we  recognise  the  various  channels 
through  which  personality  may  make  itself  felt, 
and  what  far-reaching  effects  it  may  have  in  per- 
meating society,  we  need  not  be  oppressed  by  the 
pessimism  which  is  so  generally  expressed.  There 
is  indeed  reason  to  despair  of  the  coercive  force 
of  the  State;  we  see  that  its  scope  is  limited,  and 
that,  however  much  may  be  accomplished  by  asso- 
ciation for  the  pursuit  of  a  common  interest,  this 
principle  does  not  touch  the  root  of  the  evil.  But 
when  these  great  social  forces  are  regarded  as  in- 
struments to  be  used  by  men  with  a  strong  sense 
of  duty,  we  may  feel  that  they  are  most  potent 
weapons  for  putting  down  evil,  and  for  fostering 
certain  forms  of  good.  If  coercive  powers  and 
voluntary  associations  are  supplemented  by  the 

239 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

endeavour  to  bring  Christian  belief  to  bear  habit- 
ually on  personal  conduct,  the  means  are  avail- 
able by  which  the  regeneration  of  society  may 
be  accomplished. 

IV.    CHRISTIAN   ORGANISATION 

The  question  remains  as  to  the  best  means  of 
invigorating  this  sense  of  personal  duty.  There 
is  no  need  to  enter  on  invidious  comparisons  or 
to  make  exclusive  claims  for  Christianity.  Patri- 
otism and  other  ideals  have  been  very  effective 
in  taking  men  out  of  themselves,  and  saving  them 
from  being  swayed  by  mere  self-interest;  it  will 
suflSce  to  say  that  since  the  time  of  our  Lord  this 
religion  has  shown  a  very  great  power  of  stimulat- 
ing the  sense  of  personal  duty.  It  is  by  consciously 
endeavouring  to  foster  this  sense  of  personal  obli- 
gation that  the  Church  can  best  co-operate 
with  the  State.  This  is  the  specific  contribution 
which  the  Church  can  make  to  the  welfare  of 
the  community.  Compared  with  the  State,  the 
Church  has  little  coercive  power,  and  in  bygone 
days  the  attempts  to  exercise  coercive  power 
were  not  so  successful  as  to  encourage  us  to  at- 
tempt them  again.  But  Christianity  can  exer- 
cise an  attractive  influence,  it  can  set  forth  ideals 
of  personal  conduct  and  provide  incentives  for 
striving  to  realise  them.  The  influence  is  spiritual; 

240 


CHRISTIAN  DUTY  IN  A   DEMOCRACY 

it  is  not  concerned  so  much  with  eradicating  what 
is  bad  as  with  fostering  and  encouraging  what  is 
good.  Its  attractive  power  may  draw  forth  the 
best  that  is  in  a  man,  and  thus  enhst  his  wilHng 
co-operation  in  the  cause  of  good.  This  spiritual 
power  can  give  insight  to  discern  where  duty  lies 
and  can  inspire  to  perseverance  in  doing  it. 

Though  the  aim  we  set  before  us  is  distinctly 
practical,  we  need  not  yield  to  the  temptation  to 
disparage  the  intellectual  side  of  Christianity;  for 
intellectual  elements  are  involved,  if  practical 
efforts  are  to  be  effectively  maintained.  The  con- 
demnation of  intellectual  error  is  most  clearly 
shown  in  the  practical  results  which  follow 
from  it.  "Ye  shall  know  them  by  their  fruits." 
Seventeenth-century  Calvinism,  by  its  insistence 
on  the  overwhelming  majesty  of  Divine  Omni- 
science and  Omnipotence,  had  a  depressing  effect 
on  human  activity.  It  had  an  affinity  with  fatal- 
ism which,  while  it  may  call  forth  unstinted  de- 
votion on  the  part  of  the  man  who  believes  him- 
self to  be  a  chosen  instrument  of  God,  condemns 
others  to  feel  the  uselessness  of  human  effort,  and 
leaves  little  scope  for  the  cultivation  of  personal 
virtues.  Again,  the  Deism,  which  was  so  widely 
diffused  in  the  eighteenth  century,  by  accustom- 
ing men  to  think  of  an  impersonal  God  who  had 

241 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

created  a  mechanical  order  in  the  Universe,  de- 
prived religion  of  the  confidence  in  a  Divine 
Father  and  the  sense  of  a  personal  duty  to  Him 
which  had  been  revealed  to  the  world  by  Chris- 
tianity. Since  theological  errors  may  be  so  fatal 
to  the  influence  of  Christianity  as  a  practical 
force  in  the  world,  intellectual  efforts  to  detect 
such  error  and  to  guard  against  it  are  not  useless 
and  are  not  thrown  away,  even  though  this  intel- 
lectual influence  on  the  doing  of  Christian  duty  is 
very  indirect. 

The  work  of  the  Church  in  inspiring  and  foster- 
ing the  sense  of  personal  duty  can  be  most  effect- 
ively done  by  setting  forth  the  encouragement 
which  may  be  derived  from  the  lives  and  exam- 
ples of  other  men;  what  they  have  done  shows 
what  is  possible  to  us.  As  Robert  Browning  says: 
"The  secret  of  goodness  and  greatness  is  in 
"choosing  whom  you  will  approach  and  live  with, 
"in  memory  or  imagination,  through  the  crowding, 
"obvious  people  who  seem  to  live  with  you."^  We 
cannot  afford  to  neglect  any  study  that  enables 
us  to  feel  the  inspiration  that  is  given  by  human 
lives. 

The  life  of  our  Lord  stands  unique  and  alone, 

*  Letters  of  Robert  Browning  and  Elizabeth  Barrett  (9  July,  1846), 
II,  318. 

24.2 


CHRISTIAN  DUTY   IN  A  DEMOCRACY 

with  intense  patriotic  enthusiasm,  and  a  willing- 
ness to  sacrifice  Himself  utterly.  The  rites  which 
He  ordained  are  the  means  by  which  men  and 
women  throughout  all  ages  and  in  all  lands  may 
be  brought  into  closest  conscious  union  with  His 
life;  and  in  all  the  struggles  of  the  saints  in  every 
age,  there  is  a  manifestation  of  the  Christian  spirit 
in  circumstances  in  which  our  Lord  was  never 
placed,  and  under  conditions  which  may  be  more 
familiar  to  us  than  those  of  His  life  in  Pales- 
tine. In  the  lives  of  those  who  have  departed  in 
Christ's  faith  and  fear,  there  is  an  example  which 
may  help  us  to  interpret  our  own  Christian  duty, 
and  may  encourage  us  to  do  it.  The  work  of  the 
Christian  Church  *may  be  most  effective  when 
it  is  catholic,  and  ready  to  draw  examples  of 
Christian  heroism  from  the  men,  in  any  age  or 
at  any  time,  who  profess  and  call  themselves 
Christian. 

Scholarship  can  enlarge  the  range  from  which 
inspiration  is  drawn  by  leading  us  to  the  Old 
Testament  as  well.  The  more  we  can  study  that 
collection  of  books  so  as  to  get  at  the  personality 
of  the  holy  men  of  old  who  helped  to  compile  it, 
or  whose  doings  it  describes,  the  more  we  shall 
feel  the  reality  of  the  personal  power  of  religious 
influence.  The  careful  study  of  philology,  and  the 
purely  scientific  investigation  of  literary  forms, 

243 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

and  of  place  and  time  of  writing,  are  necessary 
preliminaries  to  obtaining  a  vivid  conception  of 
the  personal  faith  and  struggles  of  men  and 
women  in  pre-Christian  times.  But  the  more  we 
can  apprehend  their  conditions  and  the  victories 
of  their  faith,  the  more  keenly  may  we  feel  it 
our  duty  to  live  up  to  the  fuller  light  we  have 
received. 

Christianity,  in  all  its  aspects,  cannot  have  its 
full  effect  upon  society  unless  attempts  are  made 
to  bring  it  to  bear,  not  only  on  those  who  are  con- 
sciously attracted  by  it,  but  on  all  and  sundry, 
the  indifferent  as  well  as  the  hostile.  No  better 
method  of  attempting  this  has  been  suggested 
than  the  organisation  of  the  Christian  Church, 
on  a  local  basis.  In  seeking  to  increase  the 
effectiveness  of  Christian  influence  in  Scotland, 
Dr.  Chalmers^  contended  strongly  that  territorial 
organisation  was  the  system  by  which  the  greatest 
economy  of  effort  might  be  secured,  while  yet  that 
effort  was  so  directed  as  to  bring  the  whole  popu- 
lation within  its  range,  and  to  leave  none  who 
were  beyond  the  sphere  of  its  influence.  Thus  or- 
ganised the  work  of  the  Christian  Church  may  be 
adapted  to  each,  while  it  reaches  all.  The  princi- 
ple of  territorial  organisation,  which  has  a  long 
history  in  Virginia,  and  has  been  maintained  by 

*  Chalmers,  Civic  Economy  of  Large  Towns,  i,  chapters  2,  3,  4. 

244 


CHRISTIAN  DUTY  IN  A   DEMOCRACY 

Episcopalians  in  the  United  States,  has  recently 
found  more  general  acceptance.  "Responsibility- 
Districts  "  have  been  adopted  by  many  denomina- 
tions, in  New  York  and  other  cities,  as  an  essen- 
tial step  to  grappling  with  the  problems  they 
present.^  In  this  way  the  sense  of  neighbourli- 
ness, which  is  natural  to  human  beings  living  in 
society,  may  be  employed  for  the  ministration 
of  Christian  charity  and  for  union  in  common 
worship. 

There  are  many  complaints  of  widespread  in- 
difference to  Christianity  in  the  present  day,  and 
men  are  likely  to  be  indifferent  to  a  political 
Christianity,  which  has  no  message  of  its  own  to 
offer,  but  is  content  with  backing  up  the  crude 
efforts  of  the  State.  They  are  likely  to  be  indiffer- 
ent to  a  Christianity  which  pursues  and  is  wholly 
absorbed  in  intellectual  speculations  and  literary 
pedantries,  as  if  they  were  an  end  in  themselves. 
But  the  world  is  ready  to  respond  to  a  Christianity 
which  sets  forth  a  faith  in  the  living  power  of  God 
and  holds  out  fresh  hope  for  mankind;  and  which, 
by  fostering  the  sense  of  personal  duty,  can 
exercise  an  immediate  and  a  far-reaching  influ- 
ence in  the  regeneration  of  society.  We  have  no 
need  to  despair  in  presence  of  the  perplexities  of 

1  Federation,  published  by  the  New  York  Federation  of  Churches, 
VII,  no.  IV,  2583. 

245 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  POLITICS 

the  day;  there  is  a  call  to  every  Christian  man  to 
use  the  extraordinary  power  in  the  hands  of  the 
State  for  repressing  the  evils  among  the  masses, 
and  also  to  seek  to  make  his  own  personal  life  a 
better  expression  of  the  mind  of  Christ. 


THE    END 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX 

THE  ATTITUDE  OF  THE  CHURCH 
TOWARDS  WAR 

The  apostles  as  witnesses  to  the  Divine  Power  of 
their  Lord  were  charged  with  the  message  to  convince 
mankind  of  His  power  to  forgive  sins,  and  to  implant 
in  them  the  assurance  of  a  resurrection  from  the  dead. 
They  were  convinced  that  this  faith  would  leaven 
human  society,  as  it  had  already  regenerated  their  own 
lives,  but  they  had  no  definite  rules  to  lay  down  for  the 
conduct  of  human  society:  they  had  a  spiritual  truth 
to  reveal,  and  this  was  the  secret  of  their  success.  They 
were  not  primarily  reformers  of  secular  society,  and  so 
they  had  no  definite  rules  to  lay  down  for  civil  society 
in  every  age.  They  expected  that  the  present  evil 
world  would  be  swept  away  and  a  heavenly  realm  of 
perfect  peace  and  happiness  be  established,  but  they 
did  not  single  out  war  as  one  special  feature  of  the 
present  evil  world  to  be  dealt  with  by  itself.  And  so, 
though  the  spirit  of  Christian  doctrine  is  wholly  op- 
posed to  War,  as  generally  caused  and  habitually  con- 
ducted, there  was  not  in  primitive  times  any  definite 
protest  against  this  particular  symptom  in  society  of 
the  evil  disease  in  human  hearts.  The  attitude  which 
was  taken  at  first  has  been  on  the  whole  maintained, 
both  in  the  early  Church  and  in  recent  times;  but 
the  Christian  opposition  to  war  has  been  expressed 
in  different  ways  in  different  ages,  according  to  the 
conditions  of  society  and  the  circumstances  of  the 
day.  There  are  three  main  periods  to  be  distinguished. 
(1)  The  first  four  centuries  and  the  acceptance  of  War 

U9 


APPENDIX 

as  inevitable  in  an  evil  world.  (2)  The  consecration 
of  War  as  an  instrument  to  be  used  by  the  Christian 
Polity,  from  the  fifth  to  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  (3)  The  recognition  that  War  is  an  evil,  and 
that  those  who  are  responsible  for  appealing  to  force 
in  international  differences  are  guilty  of  a  crime,  is 
characteristic  of  modern  times  and  has  been  inciden- 
tally discussed  in  the  foregoing  pages.  The  Christian 
antagonism  to  War  cannot  be  formulated  as  an  eternal 
truth  for  all  time.  The  duty  of  a  Christian  towards 
War  and  his  responsibility  for  War  were  necessarily 
different  in  the  case  of  a  slave  in  a  heathen  empire,  and 
in  the  citizen  of  a  democratic  nation,  who  has  a  voice  in 
the  government  of  the  country;  but  the  constant  effort 
to  bring  the  spirit  of  Christ's  teaching  to  bear  on  actual 
life,  in  each  age  in  turn,  has  resulted  in  the  growth  of  a 
body  of  experience,  and  has  given  rise  to  a  certain 
consensus  of  Christian  opinion. 

I.   THE    ACCEPTANCE    OF  WAR   AS    INEVITABLE  IN 

AN   EVIL  WORLD 

The  first  Christians  were  conscious  that  they  were 
members  of  a  spiritual  kingdom  and  owed  allegiance 
to  Christ  as  their  king;  but  this  did  not  absolve  them 
from  obedience  to  earthly  monarchs,  unless  they  were 
commanded  to  do  something  that  was  inconsistent 
with  their  allegiance  to  Christ;  they  were  to  be  good 
citizens  and  so  to  commend  their  religion  to  those 
around  them.  This  was  all  the  more  difficult  as  their 
neighbours  and  the  heathen  magistrates  soon  viewed 
them  with  suspicion;  they  could  not  understand  what 
the  men  of  the  Third  Race  were  aiming  at.^  Justin 
Martyr  2  and  other  apologists  insisted  that  the  kingdom 
at  which  Christ  aimed  was  not  of  this  world;  though 

*  Harnack,  Expansion  of  Christianity,  i,  300/. 

2  Justin  Martyr,  ApoL,  i,  11, 14.    (Migne,  vi,  341, 348.) 

250 


APPENDIX 

their  religion  emanated  from  Judaism  they  were  quite 
distinct  from  the  Jews,  and  there  was  no  danger  of 
their  taking  up  arms  in  defence  of  their  religion  as  the 
Jews  had  done  over  and  over  again.  ^  They  claimed 
to  be  a  peaceable  and  unarmed  folk.  They  found,  how- 
ever, great   difficulty  in  keeping  themselves  true  to 
their  profession  in  a  pagan  atmosphere.   There  was 
much  in  heathen  society  that  was  likely  to  contami- 
nate them,  and  it  was  not  easy  to  be  in  the  world  and 
not  of  it;  there  were  dangers  of  showing  a  greedy  and 
grasping  spirit  in  the  conduct  of  their  affairs,  and  they 
were  put  on  their  guard  against  the  scandal  caused  by 
litigation  or  extortion.    They  could  not  countenance 
the  shedding  of  blood  for  mere  amusement,  and  kept 
away  from  gladiatorial  shows;  ^  but  so  far  as  we  can 
rely  on  the  argument  from  silence.  Christians  do  not 
appear  to  have  been  repelled  by  bloodshed  in  war. 
Pliny  ^  does  not  complain  of  them,  and  there  seem 
to  be  no  special  warnings  in  regard  to  un-Christian 
conduct  in  connection  with  military  service.    Nor  is 
this  silence  due,  as  is  sometimes  alleged,  to  a  Christian 
habit  of  refraining  altogether  from  serving  in  the  army. 
Tertullian,  in  repelling  the  charge  that  Christians  were 
infructuosi  in  negotiis,  insists  as  a  well-known  fact  that 
Christians  take  part  in  all  the  duties  of  life.  "  We  make 
"use  of  the  forum  and  the  market,  and  the  baths  and 
"  the  shops  and  other  social  institutions  of  our  age.  We 
"both  sail  and  fight  by  your  side."  *  And  his  evidence 
at  a  later  time  is  even  more  definite.  "Tell  me  a  war 
for  which  we  have  not  been  useful  and  ready,  even 
when  inferior  in  numbers,  ready  to  be  cut  down  as 
none  would  be  whose  tenets  were  not  that  it  is  more 


« 


1  Origen,  Contra  Cels.,  vii,  26.  (Migne,  xi,  1457.) 

2  Athenagoras,  Leg.  'pro  Christ.,  35.  (Migne,  vi,  969.) 

»  J.  F.Bethune  Baker,  CAm<iam77/an(ZIFar,  21.  I  am  indebted  to 
this  admirable  essay  for  many  references. 
«  A'pol,  42.  (Migne,  i,  490.) 

251 


APPENDIX 

"lawful  to  be  killed  than  to  kill."  ^  The  legend «  of  the 
Thundering  Legion  is  additional  proof  that  there  were 
Christian  soldiers  serving  in  the  army  of  Marcus 
Aurelius;  and  the  evidence  of  inscriptions  ^  shows  that 
so  far  as  monuments  survive  there  were  Christians  in 
the  army;  though  the  number  of  soldiers  among  the 
Christians  seems  to  have  been  much  smaller  in  propor- 
tion than  in  the  case  of  the  heathen  population. 

MiHtary  service  was  uncongenial  to  Christians,  but 
was  not  regarded  as  in  itself  wrong.  Origen,  in  replying 
to  Celsus,  claims  that  there  should  be  an  exemption 
from  military  service  for  the  Christians,  as  there  was 
on  grounds  of  ritual  purity  for  the  priests  of  certain 
shrines;^  but  there  was  no  suggestion  that  War  was 
in  itself  wrong;  his  argument  is  that  Christian  priests 
do  their  share  effectually  by  prayers  to  the  true  God; 
"  keeping  assuredly  their  hands  pure  but  contending  by 
"their  prayers  to  God  on  behalf  of  all  that  are  warring 
"justly."  It  is  clear  that  the  Great  Alexandrian  did 
not  regard  War  as  a  thing  in  which  the  Christian  was 
wrong  to  take  part. 

That  military  service  was  uncongenial  to  Christians 
is  highly  probable;  and  there  may  have  been  grounds 
for  the  complaint  of  Celsus  that  the  pusillanimity  and 
unwillingness  of  the  Christians  to  fight  was  a  danger  to 
the  Empire,^  or  for  the  allegation  reported  by  Gibbon 
that  the  unwillingness  of  Christians  to  enlist  was  the 
cause  of  the  persecution  under  Diocletian.^  It  seems 
more  probable  however  that  this  was  not  the  chief 
reason  for  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  military  authori- 

1  ApoL,  37.   (Migne,  i,  463.) 

2  Tertullian,  Ep.  ad  Scap.,  4.  212  a.d.   (Migne,  i,  703.) 

3  Le  Blant,  Inscriptions  chretiennes  de  la  Oaule,  i,  84. 

*  Origen,  Contra  Gels.,  viii,  73,  74.    (Migne,  xi,  1628.) 
^  Origen,  op.  cit.,  viii,  74.   (Migne,  xi,  1629.) 
^  Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall,  chap.  xvi.    Eusebius,  H.  E.,  viii, 
4,  X,  68. 

252 


it 
« 
« 


APPENDIX 

ties,  but  that  they  found  the  Christian  soldiers  were 
not  altogether  amenable  to  military  discipline.    The 
oath  of  military  obedience  ^  and  the  participation  in 
idolatrous  rites  gave  rise  to  scruples  and  insubordina- 
tion. The  earliest  known  instance  of  a  Christian  refus- 
ing to  serve  in  the  army  obtained  the  enthusiastic  ap- 
proval of  Tertullian,^  but  not  for  the  reasons  we  might 
expect.     "It   is   important,*'    as   Professor   Bethune 
Baker  says,  "  to  notice  what  Tertullian  means  by  those 
"  offences  against  God  which  are  inseparable  from  the 
"soldier's  life.    It  is  not  the  modern  idea  at  all.    The 
special  objections  which  he  feels,  the  only  offences 
against  Christian  sentiment  that  seem  to  really  weigh 
with  him,  are  the  military  oath — over  which  the  hea- 
then gods  presided,  and  the  pagan  ceremonial  with 
which  so  many  military  acts  and  operations  were 
"invested."^   But  on  whatever  grounds,  there  seems 
to  have  been  an  increasing  aversion  to  military  service 
on  the  part  of  Christians  in  the  third  century;  the  po- 
sition was  felt  to  be  a  false  one;  and  Cyprian  appears 
to  have  commemorated  several  soldiers  who  suffered 
for  their  convictions.*  To  the  imperial  authorities  the 
attitude  taken  by  Christians  towards  war  presented  a 
serious  diflSculty,  and  Galerius  made  vigorous  efforts 
to  force  the  Christians  at  his  court  and  in  his  army  to 
abandon  their  religion;  ^  he  was  at  last  able  to  persuade 
Diocletian  ^  to  issue  the  decree  which  was  primarily 
intended  to  deprive  Christians  of  public  posts  in  court. 
This  raised  the  question  of  principle,  so  far  as  Chris- 
tians were  personally  concerned,  and  of  conforming  to 
heathen  formalities;  it  resulted  in  the  martyrdom  of 

*  Tertullian,  De  idol.,  19. 

2  De  Corona,  chap.  i.  (Migne,  ii,  76.) 
'  Christianity  and  War,  25. 

*  Ep.,  34.   (Migne,  iv,  323.) 

6  Eusebius,  H.  E.,  viii,  App.  (Migne,  xx,  793.) 

*  Lactantius,  Liber  de  mart,  persec,  xi.   (Migne,  vii,  212.) 

253 


APPENDIX 

numbers  of  Christian  soldiers.  The  extension  of  the 
persecution  to  the  civil  population  seemed  necessary  if 
this  doctrine  was  to  be  exterminated  in  the  army,  and 
a  systematic  effort  was  made  to  stamp  out  a  religion 
which  seemed  to  be  mischievous  to  the  State.  ^ 

With  the  Peace  of  the  Church  the  duty  of  the 
Christian  soldier  was  set  in  an  entirely  new  light; 
the  conditions  of  military  discipline  ceased  to  raise  the 
question  of  principle  as  to  loyalty  to  Christ,  and  St. 
Augustine  discusses  the  spirit  in  which  wars  are  con- 
ducted 2  while  he  denounces  wars  of  territorial  aggres- 
sion as  robbery  on  a  large  scale. ^  But  this  he  treats 
rather  as  a  question  for  kings  and  rulers,^  than  for  the 
private  individual;  in  his  eyes  the  main  duty  of  the 
soldier  was  obedience;  and  hence  there  came  to  be  a 
more  complete  reconciliation  between  the  current  con- 
sciousness of  Christian  duty  and  military  discipline. 
St.  Augustine  dismisses  the  opinion  that  the  shedding 
of  blood  was  necessarily  un-Christian  as  Manichsean,^ 
and  insists  that  it  is  right  to  fight  in  a  good  cause  and  to 
maintain  and  extend  the  best  earthly  civilisation.^  The 
soldier's  calling  was  a  life  of  self-sacrifice  and  disci- 
pHne;  it  had  affinities  with  asceticism  and  was  a  voca- 
tion in  which  a  man  might  be  doing  his  duty  to  God.^ 

II.    THE   CONSECRATION    OF   WAR 

St.  Augustine  not  only  summed  up  the  experience  of 
three  preceding  centuries  of  Christian  life,  but  he  had 
a  vision  of  Christian  Civilisation,  which  dominated  the 
whole  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  continued  to  exercise  an 

1  Eusebius,  E.  E.,  x,  8.   (Migne,  xx,  895.) 

2  EpisL,  cxxxviii,  14.   (Migne,  xxxiii,  531.) 

3  Civ.  Dei,  iv,  6. 

*  Contra  Faust.,  xxii,  75.   (Migne,  xlii,  448.) 
6  Ibid.,  XXII,  74.   (Migne,  xlii,  447.) 

6  Civ.  Dei,  iv,  15,  and  xv,  4.   (Migne,  xli,  124  and  440.) 

7  Epist.,  CLXXXix,  4,  6.   (Migne,  xxxiii,  855,  856;  also  XL,  1054.) 

254 


APPENDIX 

extraordinary  influence  on  the  Christian  conception  of 
duty  till  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century.  He 
framed  the  thought  of  a  City  of  God,  in  which  the 
Spiritual  should  control  and  direct  all  the  activities  of 
the  civil  state,  and  thus  employ  them  to  give  effect 
to  God's  Will  upon  earth.  In  the  first  ages  men  had 
viewed  the  heathen  Empire,  with  all  its  marvellous 
organisation,  as  the  foundation  of  civil  order;  but  St. 
Augustine  looked  for  a  really  Christian  polity,  in  which 
secular  authority,  with  all  its  powers  and  opportunities, 
should  be  consciously  governed  by  spiritual  aims.  The 
use  of  force  by  the  State,  either  within  by  the  magis- 
trate, or  without  in  war  with  the  enemies  of  the  Chris- 
tian polity,  became  consecrated;  to  engage  in  war  for 
such  purposes  was  regarded  not  only  as  allowable,  but 
as  a  Christian  duty. 

This  view  of  a  Christian  polity  living  and  working  in 
actual  conditions  of  place  and  time  gave  a  new  con- 
ception to  the  work  of  missions.  The  spread  of  the 
gospel  was  not  thought  of,  as  it  had  been  in  the  first 
ages  and  is  again  to-day,  as  the  conversion  of  individu- 
als, but  as  the  diffusion  of  Christian  institutions  which 
would  mould  and  form  Christian  habits  of  life.  Appeals 
were  made  to  barbarian  potentates,  so  that  their 
tribes  might  accept  the  Christian  faith;  it  was  the 
easiest  means  for  establishing  peace  on  the  borders, 
and  security  in  the  centres  of  Christian  life.  Religious 
belief  and  political  aims  were  intimately  blended  in 
the  wars  of  Charles  the  Great,  and  the  forcible  conver- 
sions of  the  Saxons;  and  the  same  motives  were  con- 
joined in  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Crusaders  for  rescuing 
the  Holy  Sepulchre  from  the  Infidels.  There  was  no 
sense  of  incongruity  in  the  use  of  such  violent  means 
for  the  expansion  of  the  Christian  polity. 

The  consecration  of  warfare  as  the  means  for  the 
spread  of  the  Christian  polity  is  also  clearly  brought 

^55 


APPENDIX 

out  in  the  institution  of  the  mihtary  orders.^  They 
were  the  outcome  of  a  desire  to  devote  the  bravery  of 
soldiers  and  the  discipUne  of  an  army  to  the  cause  of 
Christ.  The  story  of  the  Knights  Templars  shows  how 
earnestly  the  founders  of  the  order  were  desirous  of  dedi- 
cating themselves  to  the  service  of  God  in  the  fashion 
in  which  they  felt  they  could  serve  him  best;  and 
the  ceremonies  of  initiation  and  the  rule  of  the  order  ^ 
preserved  the  consciousness  of  this  ideal,  —  however 
much  members  of  the  order  may  have  lost  the  spirit- 
ual side.  It  is,  at  all  events,  clear  that  they  helped  to 
introduce  a  higher  standard  into  secular  life.  The  re- 
ligious desire  to  carry  on  war  in  a  Christian  fashion, 
restraining  lust  and  passion  and  honouring  a  brave 
foe,  was  one  of  the  sources  of  Chivalry;  and  there  is  a 
contrast  between  the  barbarism  of  the  heathen  inva- 
ders, or  the  anarchy  of  the  Dark  Ages,  and  warfare  as 
conducted  by  the  Crusaders. 

While  the  Church  in  the  Middle  Ages  regarded  War 
as  a  thing  that  might  be  consecrated  by  being  used  for 
the  highest  purposes,  there  were  also  constant  pro- 
tests against  unconsecrated  war  —  the  maintenance  of 
private  feuds  and  the  cruelties  exercised  towards  the 
peaceful  inhabitants.  The  reign  of  Stephen  offers 
the  best  illustration  from  English  history  of  what  was 
involved  in  letting  feudal  anarchy  have  free  play. 
"  When  the  traitors  perceived  that  he  was  a  mild  man 
"and  a  soft  and  a  good,  and  that  he  did  not  enforce 
"justice,  they  did  all  wonder.  They  had  done  homage 
"to  him  and  sworn  oaths,  but  they  no  faith  kept;  all 
"  became  forsworn  and  broke  their  allegiance  ...  for 
"they  filled  the  land  with  castles.  They  greatly  op- 
"  pressed  the  wretched  people  by  making  them  work 
"at  these  castles,  and  when  the  castles  were  finished 

1  St.  Bernard,  De  laude  novcB  Militice.  (Migne,  CLXXxn,  921.) 

2  Addison,  Knights  Templars,  14. 

Q56 


i( 
ii 
ti 
it 
it 


APPENDIX 

"they  filled  them  with  devils  and  evil  men.  Then  they 
took  those  whom  they  suspected  to  have  any  goods, 
by  night  and  by  day  seizing  both  men  and  women, 
and  they  put  them  in  prison  for  their  gold  and  silver, 
and  tortured  them  with  pains  unspeakable,  for  never 
were  any  martyrs  tormented  as  these  were.*'  ^  The 
advent  of  a  strong  king  helped  to  bring  this  anarchy  to 
an  end  in  England;  but  in  the  north  of  France  it  was 
checked  by  the  steady  action  of  the  Church  in  bring- 
ing spiritual  censures  to  bear,  thus  enforcing  respect 
for  promises,  and  securing  a  respite  from  this  militar- 
ism. The  right  of  private  warfare  was  limited  by  main- 
taining the  truce  of  God;  while  attempts  were  made 
in  one  Council  after  another  to  secure  the  churches, 
the  clergy  and  the  religious,  the  cemeteries,  children, 
women,  pilgrims  and  labourers,  as  well  as  the  instru- 
ments for  manual  work  in  the  enjoyment  of  constant 
peace. ^ 

So  long  as  the  ordeal  of  battle  was  a  recognised  form 
of  judicial  procedure^  it  was  obviously  impossible  to 
put  down  war  altogether,  but  it  was  practicable  to  ad- 
vocate other  methods  of  judicial  procedure,  and  to 
limit  the  damage  inflicted  by  war.  The  Church  was 
successful  in  the  task  she  set  herself,  because  she  con- 
centrated her  attention  on  the  passions  that  gave  rise 
to  private  war;  and  because  spiritual  censures  and  the 
deprivation  of  spiritual  privileges  were  very  effective 
weapons  for  enforcing  her  authority.  Experience  of  the 
blessings  of  peace  helped  men  to  realise  that  the  in- 
terests of  the  community  —  especially  of  the  Crown 
and  of  the  labouring  and  commercial  classes  —  were 
promoted  by  the  cessation  of  war;  but  the  action  of  the 
Church  was  directed  towards  religious  aims,  and  was 
conducted  by  spiritual  means. 

^  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  a.d.  1137. 

2  Semichon,  La  Paix  et  la  Treve  de  Dieu,  i,  36. 

'  G.  Neilson,  Trial  by  Combat. 

257 


APPENDIX 

The  Papacy,  as  the  head  of  Latin  Christendom,  had 
exercised  an  enormous  influence  in  reducing  the  bar- 
barity of  war,  but  the  authority  of  Rome,  as  an  inter- 
national arbiter,  was  undermined  when  it  came  to 
be  generally  felt  throughout  Western  Europe  that  the 
government  of  the  Church  had  become  secularised;  the 
Church,  as  a  temporal  power,  was  keenly  concerned  in 
Italian  politics  and  could  not  be  accepted  as  a  disin- 
terested arbiter,  while  in  large  areas  the  censures  of  the 
Roman  Church  had  ceased  to  obtain  resp>ect,  or  to  re- 
strain those  who  were  eager  to  pursue  their  personal 
interests  by  any  means  in  their  power.  The  revolt 
against  the  authority  of  the  Pope  almost  necessarily 
resulted  in  an  outbreak  of  embittered  struggles:  to  the 
Catholic  powers  it  appeared  a  religious  duty  to  stamp 
out  the  rebellion  against  the  Spiritual  Head  of  Christen- 
dom; to  the  people  of  Great  Britain,  the  Lutherans  and 
the  Huguenots,  it  appeared  a  religious  duty  to  main- 
tain a  struggle  against  a  secularised  Christianity  which 
was  endeavom'ing  to  suppress  the  free  growth  of  na- 
tional life.  In  Christendom,  as  severed  by  the  Re- 
formation, War  was  more  directly  associated  with 
Religion  than  it  had  ever  been  on  European  soil  be- 
fore. At  the  disruption  of  Christendom,  there  seemed 
to  all  parties  to  be  a  clear  call  to  employ  War  for  spir- 
itual purposes.  The  Reformers  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury were  still  true  to  St.  Augustine's  hope  of  estab- 
lishing an  earthly  polity  in  which  Christian  ideals 
should  be  the  supreme  guide  in  all  the  relations  of  life. 
Luther  and  Cranmer  relied  on  Christian  Princes  to  use 
their  power  to  maintain  traditional  Christian  institu- 
tions, and  thus  to  create  a  national  Christianity  which 
should  be  free  from  the  abuses  that  had  destroyed  its 
spiritual  influence.  Calvin  and  his  followers  endeav- 
oured to  substitute  a  new  and  scriptural  Christian 
polity,  but  also  thought  that  it  was  not  merely  allow- 
able, but  a  duty  for  the  Christian  man  to  fight  in 

258 


APPENDIX 

defence  of  the  true  Church.  The  Wars  of  Rehgion  in 
France  and  the  Thirty  Years'  War  in  Germany  were 
the  consequence  of  this  conviction  as  to  reUgious  duty; 
and  it  was  strengthened  by  the  consciousness  that  a 
war  of  aggression  had  been  divinely  sanctioned  in  the 
Old  Testament.  The  extermination  of  the  Pequod 
Nation  seemed  to  the  men  of  Connecticut  to  be  God's 
means  of  giving  his  beloved  rest;  the  religious  zeal 
of  the  Covenanters  in  Scotland  expressed  itself  in  re- 
bellion against  an  uncovenanted  king. 

The  perpetration  of  the  worst  horrors  of  war  in  the 
name  of  Christianity  caused  such  a  shock  to  devout 
feeling  that  there  was  a  strong  reaction,  and  the  opin- 
ion began  to  be  expressed  that  the  use  of  force  was 
under  all  circumstances  inconsistent  with  Christianity. 
This  was  the  attitude  of  the  Anabaptists;  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  the  doctrine  was  new,  though  it  had 
much  in  common  with  the  teaching  of  the  Montanists. 
The  Montanists  had  pressed  scriptural  teaching  as  a 
reason  for  abstaining  rigidly  from  the  incidental  evil  of 
heathen  society,  but  the  Anabaptists  appear  to  have 
interpreted  the  New  Testament  as  condemning  the 
whole  framework  of  Civil  Society.  There  are  several 
of  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  which  are  directed  against 
them.^  "The  laws  of  the  Realm  may  punish  Christian 
men  with  death,  for  heinous  and  grievous  offences. 
It  is  lawful  for  Christian  men,  at  the  commandment 
of  the  magistrate  to  wear  weapons  and  to  serve  in 
the  wars."  Again,  "The  Riches  and  Goods  of  Chris- 
tians, are  not  common  as  touching  the  right,  title 
and  possession  of  the  same,  as  certain  Anabaptists  do 
vainly  boast;"  and  so  also  in  regard  to  a  Christian 
man's  oath.  It  is  to  be  noticed  that  the  Anabaptists 
did  not  so  much  object  to  war  because  it  involved 
the  slaying  of  a  fellow  creature,  as  on  more  general 
*  Gibson,  Articles,  xxxvii,  xxxviii,  xxxix. 

259 


APPENDIX 

grounds;  they  denied  any  distinction  between  official 
and  private  life,  and  held  that  what  was  unlawful  for 
the  private  Christian  was  also  to  be  condemned  when 
done  by  a  magistrate;  at  least  this  is  the  impression 
that  is  derived  from  the  language  of  those  who  con- 
demned them.  They  certainly  appear  to  have  com- 
mitted themselves  to  a  false  spirituality  in  the  limita- 
tions they  laid  on  the  power  of  the  magistrate  for  the 
punishment  of  evil-doers. 

From  this  point  of  view  it  followed  that  War  was  in 
itself  wrong;  that  since  a  private  p>erson  might  not 
kill  in  a  private  quarrel,  a  collection  of  private  indi- 
viduals were  not  justified  in  using  force  either.    The 
principle  that  War  was  under  all  circumstances  and 
in  itself  wrong,  which  St.  Augustine  had  condemned 
as   Manichaean,  was  taken   up  by   the  Anabaptists 
and,  descended  to  George  Fox,  it  was  enthusiastically 
adopted  by  those  who  formed  the  Society  of  Friends. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  much  plausible  argument 
can  be  adduced  in  favour  of  their  position  from  the 
New  Testament.    The   Early   Christians  were  pre-  . 
eluded  from  taking  an  active  part  in  public  life,  and 
they  made  experiments  in  communism;  it  would  be 
easy  to  argue  that  they  maintained  a  merely  negative 
attitude  towards  civil  government;  but  it  is  not  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  teaching  of  the  Gospels  and  Epistles 
to  say  that  this  negative  attitude  is  enjoined  on  Chris- 
tians for  all  time.    The  odium  which  was  expressed 
towards  the  Quakers,  both  in  England  and  America, 
was  due  to  the  fact  that  they  were  able  to  take  advan- 
tage of  the  existence  of  Civil  Society,  while  they  pro- 
fessed to  hold  aloof  from  it;  they  were  not  consistently 
following  the  example  of  the  Early  Christians,  as  they 
had  no  scruple  in  securing  their  rights  by  litigation, 
and  had  no  rules  to  enable  them  to  refrain  from  hard 
bargains  in  business.    Apart  from  such  apparent  in- 
consistencies, the  real  weakness  of  Quakerism  and  of 

260 


APPENDIX 

all  forms  of  Quietism  is  that  since  they  regard  Chris- 
tianity as  having  a  negative  attitude  towards  civil 
affairs,  they  have  no  positive  teaching  to  give  as  to  the 
way  in  which  Christianity  may  be  brought  to  bear  on 
political  life  and  national  duty.  The  problem  as  to  the 
method  of  reconciling  his  duty  as  a  Christian  with  his 
duty  as  a  citizen  is  left  to  each  individual  to  solve 
for  himself,  often  by  some  compromise  which  leaves  his 
conscience  uneasy. 

The  exaggeration  which  insists  that  War  must  be 
avoided,  as  in  itself  an  evil  thing,  by  Christian  men 
under  all  circumstances,  had  re-introduced  the  cleav- 
age between  civil  society  and  Christianity  which  had 
come  to  an  end  at  the  Peace  of  the  Church.  On  the  one 
hand,  Christianity  appears  to  be  represented  as  aiming 
at  an  external  change  in  society  which  most  men  re- 
gard as  impracticable,  and  as  being  futile  and  ineffec- 
tive in  so  far  as  it  has  not  secured  it.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  State  and  politics  are  regarded  as  being  of 
the  earth  earthy,  and  left  to  be  controlled  by  the 
play  of  private  interests,  and  without  any  conscious 
reference  to  spiritual  truth.  Besides  this,  it  is  not  pos- 
sible for  the  Christian  who  takes  this  view  of  civil  so- 
ciety to  maintain  a  merely  negative  attitude  towards 
the  government  of  the  country  in  which  he  lives,  and 
on  which  he  relies  for  protection;  he  is  almost  certain, 
in  refusing  to  conform  to  the  institutions  of  society,  to 
undermine  its  authority,  even  if  he  does  not  actively 
oppose  it.  And  thus  he  is  in  danger  of  being  brought 
into  direct  conflict  with  apostolic  teaching  as  to  the 
Christian  attitude  towards  civil  magistrates.  ^ 

Further,  this  negative  attitude  is  neither  inspiring 
nor  effective.  Christianity  as  thus  represented  has  no 
power  to  encourage  the  citizen  in  the  discharge  of 
public  duty  either  in  peace  or  in  war.  Those  who  be- 
lieve that  war  is  an  im-Christian  thing  are  not  ready  to 

261 


APPENDIX 

admit  that  the  profession  of  a  soldier  is  permissible  for 
a  Christian,  still  less  to  recognise  that  the  soldier  by 
his  readiness  to  sacrifice  his  life  in  giving  effect  to  a 
national  duty,  and  by  submitting  to  discipline,  is  in  a 
position  to  cultivate  devotion  to  duty  and  chivalry, 
and  thus  to  be  an  example  to  civilians.  The  recogni- 
tion and  cultivation  of  those  virtues  is  the  best  safe- 
guard against  the  temptation  to  which  a  soldier  may 
be  specially  exposed.  Nor  is  this  negative  attitude 
fruitful  so  far  as  the  public  is  concerned,  for  it  does 
little  to  kindle  enthusiasm,  or  to  advance  the  cause 
it  has  at  heart.  The  spread  of  private  opinion  that 
slavery  was  un-Christian  was  very  slow  indeed,  even 
among  the  Society  of  Friends,  and  failed  to  create  an 
atmosphere  in  which  slavery  could  not  exist.  The 
testimony  of  the  Quakers  does  not  seem  to  have  had 
much  to  do  with  the  extraordinary  change  in  the  atti- 
tude of  society  towards  War  which  took  place  at  the 
end  of  the  seventeenth  century.  The  conflicts  be- 
tween different  types  of  Christian  polity  had  created  a 
horror  of  war  as  an  evil,  and  had  worn  out  the  strength 
of  the  conviction  that  any  one  ecclesiastical  system 
was  exclusively  Christian.  With  the  close  of  the  sev- 
enteenth century  the  attempt  to  identify  the  kingdom 
of  God  with  any  particular  national  polity  ceased  so 
far  as  the  government  of  Great  Britain  was  concerned. 
The  recognition  of  two  national  polities,  with  one 
Crown  and  one  Parliament,  was  an  abandonment  of 
the  exclusive  claims  of  Anglicanism  or  Presbyterian- 
ism  to  control  national  life;  and  the  plantations,  in 
Maryland  and  Carolina,  were  founded  in  a  secular 
interest  and  with  no  definite  religious  affinity.  St. 
Augustine's  conception  of  the  City  of  God  had  ceased 
to  dominate  public  sentiment  in  England,  and  the  gov- 
ernment no  longer  regarded  it  as  a  duty  for  the  nation 
to  fight  on  religious  grounds. 

The  experience  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 

262 


APPENDIX 

centuries  has  not  been  in  vain.  We  have  attained  to  a 
firmer  hold  on  the  conception  of  the  kingdom  of  God 
as  spiritual;  and  there  is  a  general  opinion  among 
Christians  that  an  appeal  to  arms  is  never  justified  as 
a  means  of  advancing  the  progress  of  that  kingdom. 
We  feel  that  there  is  an  inconsistency  in  attempting  to 
promote  Christ's  cause  in  the  world,  by  means  which 
Christ  habitually  disclaimed.  The  distinction  on 
which  the  Second  Century  Apologists  insisted,  be- 
tween the  methods  of  Judaism  and  the  methods  of 
Christianity,  has  been  reaflfirmed  by  the  experience  of 
subsequent  ages. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  a  nation  engages  in  war, 
for  an  object  that  frankly  concerns  earthly  life  and 
earthly  schemes,  it  is  not  necessarily  to  be  condemned 
as  unchristian.  We  are  bidden  to  make  "friends  of  the 
Mammon  of  Unrighteousness";  and  we  ought  to  aim 
at  so  conducting  ourselves  in  warfare  as  to  be  the  bet- 
ter for  having  come  through  the  ordeal.  Recourse  to 
War  may  be  essential  for  the  preservation  of  national 
life;  participation  in  it  may  be  a  national  duty.  But 
for  a  country  to  engage  in  War  light-heartedly^,  or  to 
treat  it  as  an  excuse  for  the  indulgence  of  cruel  and 
cowardly  passions  towards  a  peaceful  population,  is 
to  disregard  Christianity  altogether.  The  protest, 
which  was  made  by  the  Church  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
is  needed  still,  so  long  as  there  are  men  like  Bernhardi, 
who  glory  in  War  for  its  own  sake,  and  claim  that  this 
habit  of  mind  is  compatible  with  Christianity.^ 
1  Germany  and  the  Next  War,  p.  29. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Alms-giving,  78. 

Anabaptists,  the,  259,  260. 

Angell,  Norman,  212. 

Anglo-Saxon  peoples,  and  the 
Roman  Church,  25-29. 

Army,  British,  percentage  of  va- 
rious denominations  in,  105  n. 

Band  of  Maintenance,  the,  66,  67. 

Baxter,  Richard,  88;  quoted,  97. 

Beggars,  treatment  of,  in  Scot- 
land, 86. 

Bible,  Cranmer's,  31. 

Bible,  the,  in  the  Reformation, 
34;  its  use  by  the  English 
Church,  34-36;  misuse  of,  54; 
danger  of  misusing,  87-91. 

Book  of  Common  Prayer,  61. 

Booth,  General,  134. 

Bray,  Dr.  Thomas,  152. 

Bright,  John,  80. 

Browne,  Robert,  quoted,  92,  93, 
94. 

Browning,  Robert,  242. 

Burial,  Christian,  99,  100. 

Burke,  Edmund,  158. 

Butler,  Bishop,  on  relief  of  the 
poor,  156. 

Calvin,  John,  63;  on  taking  of 
interest,  71. 

Calvinism,  reaction  against,  128. 

Capital,  use  of,  50-52;  freedom 
for,  58,  71,  72,  87;  and  labour, 
80,  81,  82,  234,  235;  selfish, 
143,  160-62;  cannot  be  trusted 
with  irresponsible  power,  171; 
relation  to  the  community, 
232,  233,  234. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  77. 

Catholic  Social  Movement,  the, 
in  Belgium,  19,  20. 


Chalmers,  Thomas,  77,  88-90. 

Chamberlayne,  John,  on  the  Re- 
ligious Societies,  130. 

Charity,  personal,  48,  78,  79. 

Children,  in  industry,  158,  170, 
173. 

Chishull,  Edmund,  on  the  duty 
of  the  Christian  merchant,  146, 
147. 

Christian  associations,  106-11. 

Christian   organisation,  240-46. 

Christian  polity,  national,  58, 
63-73. 

Christian  principles,  23,  24. 

Christian  realm,  administration 
of  a,  45-58. 

Christianity,  and  the  nation,  2,  3, 
5,  14,  108;  method  of,  4;  and 
the  individual,  6,  7,  198,  199, 
222;  and  social  conditions,  15; 
on  the  side  of  the  rich,  88; 
political,  189-99;  and  public 
spirit,  222;  supplies  a  motive 
force,  230;  the  intellectual  side 
of,  241,  242. 

Church,  the,  as  the  handmaid  of 
politicians,  189-92;  attitude 
towards  war,  249-63. 

Church  and  State,  in  England, 
30-62;  two  aspects  of  the  same 
community,  30,  45,  46,  110; 
system  of  rule  in,  anomalous, 
52;  the  old  system  restored, 
112;  co-operation  between,  240. 

Church  of  England,  truly  na- 
tional, 32,  33,  39;  its  appeal  to 
the  Bible,  34-36. 

Churches,  responsibility  of,  190, 
191. 

Citizen,  duties  of,  226-34. 

Citizenship,  in  a  democratic 
state,  118. 


267 


INDEX 


Civil  obedience,  grounds  of,  117- 
26;  chief  duty  of  the  citizen, 
231. 

Class  interests,  and  national  in- 
terests, 200-18;  growth  of, 
200;  inadequacy  of,  205-10; 
may  fail  to  promote  the  com- 
mon good,  208,  209;  and  indi- 
vidualism, 210. 

Clergy,  the,  in  politics,  194,  195, 
197. 

Coal  mining,  in  Scotland,  160- 
62. 

Coercion,  of  a  free  people,  im- 
possible, 53,  62;  the  right  of, 
58-62;  and  humanitarianism, 
167-99;  and  the  duties  of 
others,  174-78;  between  na- 
tions, 182;  has  limitations, 
198. 

Collections  at  church  doors,  76. 

Collective  bargaining,  173. 

Community,  the.  Christian,  74, 
95;  and  the  individual,  100, 
101,  124,  145,  163-65,  169;  an 
organic  whole,  106,  123;  sense 
of  duty  to,  125;  duties  of,  134- 
59;  prosperity  of,  159-66. 

Concessions  to  commercial  com- 
panies, 61. 

Conscience,  the  supremacy  of, 
92-126;  of  the  individual,  100, 
101. 

Co-operation,  in  production,  202, 
203;  in  education,  206;  con- 
sonant with  Christianity,  207; 
does  not  foster  sense  of  duty  to 
the  community,  207,  208. 

Co-operative  stores,  201,  202. 

Corn  Laws,  repeal  of,  173. 

Counter-Reformation,  the,  14. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  compelled  to 
do  public  penance,  55. 

Crown,  the,  and  the  people,  36- 
40;  loyalty  to,  80;  duty  of 
obedience  to,  117,  118. 

Democracy,  Christian  duty  in, 

219-46. 
Domestic  service,  236. 


Duty,  personal,  7;  oflicial,  100- 
02;  of  citizenship,  102,  103, 
114;  of  civil  obedience,  117- 
26;  to  the  community,  125, 
126;  substitutes  for  the  sense 
of,  200-05,  215;  Christian,  in 
a  democracy,  219-46;  need  of 
a  personal  sense  of,  216,  221, 
240;  two  fundamental  princi- 
ples, 224,  225;  of  a  citizen,  226- 
34;  of  private  life,  234-40. 

Ecclesiastical  courts,  53-55,  127. 

Ecclesiastics  in  civil  offices,  45, 
46. 

Economic  dependence,  214,  215. 

Economic  forces,  38,  39,  61,  116. 

English  Church,  the,  truly  na- 
tional, 33,  39;  attitude  toward 
the  Bible,  34-36. 

Feudal  anarchy,  256,  257. 
Fish  days,  49. 
Fox,  George,  100,  103. 
Free  Trade,  195,  196,  214. 
Friendly  societies,  203,  204. 
Friends.    See  Quakers. 

Gambling,  225. 

Gathered  churches,  92-100. 

George,  Lloyd,  189-91,  192. 

Geree,  Rev.  John,  on  self-inter- 
est, 143-45. 

German  Catholic  Congress,  the, 
15. 

Gibson,  Edmund,  Bishop  of 
London,  148. 

Guilds,  mediaeval,  200,  201. 

Hampden,  John,  120. 

Harvest,   Rev.   George,   on   the 

planting  of  Georgia,  136,  137. 
Hawes,  Dr.  William,  founder  of 

the  Royal   Humane  Society, 

157. 
Henry  VIH,  12,  30,  31,  63. 
Heriot,  George,  79. 
Home  Rule,  27,  28. 
Hospitals,  development  of,  153- 

55. 


268 


INDEX 


Humanitarianism,  and  coercion, 
167-99;  a  palliative,  186;  and 
war,  187,  188;  deprecates  na- 
tionality, 188. 

Hutchinson,  Anne,  109. 

Independents,  and  the  supremacy 
of  conscience,  92-126;  antago- 
nists of  existing  parties,  93,  94; 
divided  life  into  two  spheres, 
95,  110,  114;  in  Holland  and 
the  New  World,  106,  107.   ^ 

Individual  convictions,  assertion 
of,  121,  123. 

Individualism,  and  class  inter- 
ests, 210. 

Individuals,  and  society,  91,  100, 
101, 124, 145, 163-65, 169;  per- 
sonal religious  life  of,  131-34; 
influence  of  Christianity  on, 
198,  199;  and  associations, 
237,  238. 

Inquisition,  the,  13,  32. 

Interest,  on  money,  50,  70-72. 

International  agreement,  212, 
213. 

Itinerant  preachers,  97,  98. 

Jesuits,  the,  14. 

Kennett,  White,  Bishop  of  Peter- 
borough, on  sacrificing  religion 
for  gain,  148. 

Ketteler,  W.  E.,  Bishop  of 
Mainz,  15,  16. 

Knights  Templars,  256. 

Knox,  John,  75. 

Laissez-faire,  principle  long  ac- 
cepted, 167,  168;  reaction 
against,  168,  169;  abandoned, 
173,  174. 

Landed  gentry,  41-44. 

Leadership,  the  art  of,  62. 

Leisured  class,  and  public  serv- 
ice, 44. 

Levant  Company,  The,  146. 

Livesey,  Sir  George,  203. 

Locke,  John,  116. 

Love  of  country,  188. 


MacKenzie,  Sir  George,  84. 

Magistrates,  empowered  to  pun- 
ish, 69,  101;  duty  and  oppor- 
tunity of,  149,  150. 

Mapletoft,  Rev.  John,  on  care  of 
dependents,  151,  152. 

Mass,  celebration  of,  74. 

Material  prosperity,  142,  143, 
160,  164. 

Merchant  Adventurers,  56,  57. 

Methodism,  131-34. 

Military  service,  and  the  early 
Christians,  252,  253,  254. 

Mills,  Dean,  of  Exeter,  on  the 
health  of  the  poor,  149. 

Minimum  wage,  173. 

Ministers,  spiritual  independ- 
ence of,  72,  73;  in  politics,  193- 
97. 

Monasticism,  35,  64. 

Money,  getting  and  using,  50,  51. 

Montanists,  the,  259. 

National  interests,  and  class  in- 
terests, 200-18;  conflicting, 
211. 

National  jealousies,  213,  214. 

National  life,  30-44,  188. 

Nonconformists,  English,  60. 

Obedience,  civil,  117-26,  231. 

Old-age  pensions,  181. 

Old  Testament,  the,  and  the  Scot- 
tish Reformers,  68-70,  81; 
value  of,  243. 

Owen,  Robert,  202. 

Pacifism,  2. 

Papacy,  the,  spiritual  and  civil 
authority  of,  8-11;  secularisa- 
tion of,  11, 12,  258;  an  interna- 
tional arbiter,  12,  13,  21;  ex- 
ternal spiritual  authority,  14- 
25;  limitations,  22,  23;  and 
Anglo-Saxon  peoples,  25-29. 

Parkinson,  Dr.,  on  the  claims  of 
the  sick  poor,  154,  155. 

Parochial  relief,  Scottish,  76,  77. 

Parochial  schools,  75. 

Parochial  system,  of  the  Church 


269 


INDEX 


of  England,  94,  96;  abolition 

of,  in  South  Wales,  96,  97,  99. 
Party  government,  193,  227. 
Party  politics,  191, 193, 194, 195, 

226. 
Passive  resistance,  120. 
Patents,  57. 

Peasants'  rebellion,  the,  122. 
Peel,  Sir  Robert,  158,  173. 
Penn,  William,  103,  108. 
Personal  conviction,  as  basis  of 

Church  life,  92. 
Personal  Monarchy,  the,  5G,  58; 

breakdown  of,  52,  53. 
Personal  responsibility,  sense  of, 

180,  181. 
Philanthropy,     spasmodic     and 

irregular,  168,  169. 
Pinnell,  Rev.  Peter,  on  magis- 
trates, 150,  151. 
Political  economy,  5. 
Polity,  Christian  national,  58,  92; 

scriptural  model  of,  63-73. 
Poor  reUef,  47,  48,  76,  86. 
Pope  Benedict  XV,   quoted,   17, 

21  n. 
Pope  Leo  XIII,  quoted,  9, 10, 16, 

17;  Encyclicals  of,  20-25. 
Predestination  and  election,  128. 
Presbyterian    theocracy,   73-86; 

the  Bible  in,  87. 
Presbyterianism,  and  the  suprem- 
acy  of   Scripture,    63-91;    in 

Scotland,  115. 
Public  benefits  and  justice,  175, 

176. 
Public  health,  care  of,  171,  172. 
Public  opinion,  175,  190. 
Public  spirit,  religion  and,  127- 

66. 
Pulpit,  influence  of  the,  135. 
Puritans,  the,  112,  113. 

Quakers,  and  administrative  du- 
ties, 100-06;  their  sense  of 
personal  duty,  100;  declined 
duties  of  citizenship,  100,  101, 
102,  104;  their  use  of  the  New 
Testament,  102;  attitude  to- 
ward war,  260,  262. 


Reduction  of  armaments,  187. 

Reformation,  Christendom  and 
the,  8-29;  the  Bible  in,  34-36. 

Reformation,  the  English,  13, 
30,  63,  64. 

Reformation  Movement  in  Scot- 
land, the,  63-73. 

Religion,  a  force  in  political  life, 
2,  3,  219;  and  social  conditions, 
15;  eliminated  from  politics, 
114-16;  and  public  spu-it,  127- 
66;  indifference  to,  219. 

Religious  mission,  England's 
sense  of,  40,  41,  136. 

Religious  toleration,  219. 

Ridley,  Glocester,  on  the  plant- 
ing of  Georgia,  136. 

Robertson,  F.  W.,  quoted,  6. 

Roman  Catholic  writers,  28,  29. 

Royal  Humane  Society,  the,  156, 
157. 

Sabbath,  sanctity  of  the,  74. 

Sadler,  Michael,  169,  170. 

St.  Augustine  on  war,  254;  the 
City  of  God,  255. 

St.  Francis,  11. 

Salvation  Army,  the,  25,  134. 

Seamanship,  essential  to  an 
island  realm,  49. 

Self-discipline  and  growth,  127- 
34. 

Self-interest,  142-45,  216,  217. 

Serfdom,  83,  84. 

Sermon  on  the  Mount,  the,  91. 

Shaftesbury,  Lord,  169,  170. 

Slavery,  capitalist,  in  Scotland, 
82-85. 

Smith,  Adam,  167,  173. 

Society  for  the  Reformation  of 
Manners,  J  52. 

Spiritual  independence,  72,  73. 

State  insurance,  176. 

State  interference,  questionable, 
167;  may  be  desirable,  168, 
171;  may  cause  complications, 
175,  176;  better  for  dealing 
with  masses  than  with  individ- 
uals, 177;  reliance  on,  178-88; 
may  be  injurious,  180. 


270 


INDEX 


Stubbs,  William,  119. 
Synagogue  of  Satan,  breach  with 
the,  64,  65. 

Terrick,  Richard,  Bishop  of  Peter- 
borough, 137,  138. 
TertuUian,  on  Christians  in  war, 

251,  252. 
Theocracy,  Presbyterian,  73-86; 

in  the  Old  Testament,  90,  91. 
Time,  responsibility  for  the  use 

of,  224. 
Trade  interests,  in  Scotland  and 

England,  79,  80. 
Trade  unions,  172,  173,  204,  205, 

209,  210. 
Trimnell,     Charles,    Bishop    of 

Norwich,  147. 

Usury,  70,  238. 

Wales,  abolition  of  parochial 
system  in,  96,  97,  99. 

War,  the  European,  1. 

War,  an  anachronism,  1 ;  always  a 
pretext  for,  21;  attitude  of 
various  Christian  bodies  to- 
ward, 105;  duty  of  citizens  in, 


118,  231;  not  likely  to  cease  in 
near  future,  182,  183;  duty  to 
avoid  occasions  for,  184;  con- 
duct of,  185;  real  causes  of, 
187,  189,  213;  evil  of,  211;  and 
national  interests,  212,  213; 
loan,  233;  attitude  of  the 
Church  towards,  249-63; 
Christian  opposition  to,  249, 
250;  acceptance  of  as  inevit- 
able, 250-54;  consecration  of, 
as  a  means  of  spreading  Chris- 
tian polity,  254-59;  private, 
256,  257;  for  spiritual  pur- 
poses, 258,  259;  considered 
wrong  in  itself,  260,  261;  may 
be  national  duty,  263. 

Wealth,  responsibility  for,  225. 

Wesley,  John,  and  Methodism, 
131-34. 

Whewell,  William,  on  national 
life,  139-42. 

Williams,  Roger,  108,  110. 

Women  and  children,  employ- 
ment of,  170,  173. 

Women's  Suffrage,  180. 

Young,  Arthur,  160. 


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